


I Don’t Know You yet

by Piercethejody



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Dumbledore's Army, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Hogwarts, Love Triangle, Mudblood, Muggle-born, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter), Patronus, Pining, Pining Draco Malfoy, Shy Harry Potter, Slurs, Slytherin, Unrequited Love, draco is kind of an ass, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26322823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piercethejody/pseuds/Piercethejody
Summary: Draco Malfoy couldn’t believe the things he was feeling for Blair Irvin. Annoying, loud mouthed, muggle born Blair Irvin. Ever since first year he couldn’t stand her, and she couldn’t even look him in the eyes. But after a string of dementor attacks they find themselves working together to to figure out why the dementors were attacking students on school grounds. He hates to admit it but he thinks he might actually like her. But it seems like her heart is somewhere else.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a one shot so the first chapter may seem rushed and short but I’ve decided to make multiple chapters on it.

Chapter one

Everyone knew who Blair Irvin was. She’s a walking disaster, in more ways than one. Her father is a publicist and her mother is a receptionist at a primary school, there isn’t a ounce of magic in her family’s bloodline which as you could imagine was a shock to her when an owl smashed into her bedroom window in late August telling her she’d been accepted into a school for wizards. Naturally she and her parents thought it was a prank or something as any sane human would. It took a personal meeting with dumbledore to get her to actually attend hogwarts. Muggle born wizards aren’t uncommon so it wasn’t weird when she showed up in September and nearly passed out when the paintings started talking to her, but I don’t think anyone expected her to be so so bad at magic.  
She’s so bad it’s like she’s just a muggle who snuck into the school for shits and giggles. It’s a running joke amongst her friends and those who knew her well that the owl got confused and delivered the acceptance letter to the wrong person. It took her a month to hold her wand the correct way and it’s a wonder she’s made it to fifth year without getting kicked out, some first years were more skilled than her.  
She never understood why she was so bad it infuriated her at times, she’s lost track of how many times she’s been reduced to tears in the library while studying so hard and barely passing or still not being able cast basic spells people had down in first year.  
Despite the constant ridicule she gets she was always loud and bubbly, outgoing and witty she could converse with anyone. No one really hated her it was hard to hate someone so full of light and energy. She could be draining at times and annoying or overly emotional but no one ever hated her. Except for one person. We all know who I’m taking about, Draco my-father-will-be-hearing-about-this Malfoy. Of course he hated her she was a muggle born, loud mouthed and incompetent witch. She was everything draco wasn’t which meant he had a very strong disliking for her. She knew this, she was scared of him. She would never say that but if he was walking down she corridor she would take another path to avoid him, even if it meant showing up late for snapes class.  
It wouldn’t be so bad if she hadn’t been sorted into Slytherin, she can’t escape the negativity. She didn’t know why she got sorted into Slytherin she was a hufflepuff inside and out but she wears a green tie and sits at the Slytherin table and tries not to start crying everytime snape snapped at her.  
“Hey Blair”  
“I give up Potter” she huffs looking up At the brunette boy. She sat on the cold floor of the room of requirements, her wand discarded several feet away from her after she’d thrown it in a fit of rage.  
Harry lowered himself down and sat next to her, picking up her flimsy wand. They both sat in silence observing the room that was illuminated in a blue glowing display of patronus charms, all sorts of floating animals whizzed around the moon from otters to lions to rats to Pegasus’. The second Harry even mentioned conjuring a patronus Blair had already given up.  
“Well we are nearly finished here how about... you meet me here tomorrow night and I’ll teach you?” Harry’s shoulder brushes her and his cheeks blush a pretty shade of pink.  
“I might end up blowing you up, I’m somehow worse than seamus”  
“I heard that Irvin- and I don’t disagree you are bloody terrible” seamus’ voice projects across the room as a glowing fox tumbles in the air around him.  
“Watch your mouth” Blair shouts back, Ripping the wand from Harry’s grip and pointing it back at seamus.  
“Careful, you’re going to take us all out Blair” Harry laughs putting a hand over hers and lowering her wand.  
She lets out a laugh and her head falls onto Harry’s shoulder causing his whole body to tense up.  
“How on earth did I make it to fifth year?” She laughs but she didn’t actually sound upset about being terrible, that’s why she like hanging around Harry and his friends. She never really spoke to any gryffindors until she found out about dumbledores army and it was a fight for her to actually get into it. She’s been accused of being a spy for draco (which she thought was the richest thing she’d ever heard considering the last conversation she had with draco was an argument and he called her a slur so she went and cried in the girls lavatories with myrtle keeping her comfort, shes actually friends with myrtle) and many times she was straight up accused of sabotaging them for the dark lord himself ever since a rumour started circulating recently that she had the dark mark. How that rumour started is a whole other story that we will get to later.  
But everyone seemed to warm up to her quickly she enjoyed hanging with the gryffindors more than the slytherins even if they are insufferable most of the time. After threatening to duel seamus and talking (flirting) with Harry for a while longer the group dispersed from the room of requirement and all went their seperate ways. It was getting dark and it’s probably time for her to be heading back to the dormitory for curfew, she had been caught far to many time’s to be out past curfew but she still decided to go to her favourite part of the castle, the astronomy tower, and practice the patronus charm, she didn’t want to let Harry down tomorrow and so maybe a head start wouldn’t hurt.  
She scurried quietly around the vacant corridors and ran up the spiral staircase to the top of the astronomy tower, skipping steps and breathing extremely heavily. You would’ve thought in a place like this with a spell for everything there would be a more efficient way around the castle other than stairs.  
As she ascends then final few steps the wind nips at her face, chapping her lips and bringing heat to her cheeks by the time she’d reached the top, she realised she was intruding on someone else’s quiet time and they’d already spotted her before she recognised him. She halted to harsh stop, a quiet squeak escaping her tired lungs as she locked eyes with Draco.  
He just looked at her and her eyes looked anywhere but his, she debated running back down the stairs but something seemed off with him. She was half expecting him to insult her but he just turned away and looked back out over the balcony. He was only wearing a shirt with his slytherin tie hung loosely around his neck, he looked cold and dishevelled, a very jarring sight for someone with the prestige of a malfoy.  
She was left feeling like a spare part unsure wether to leave or stay.  
“You alright” her voice cracked with nerves and she immediately recoiled back into herself when she heard how timid she sounded.  
“What’s is it to you Irvin” he spits not moving from his place, his shoulders tense, his hands gripping the railing with a white knuckle grip.  
“I don’t know you just seem upset... no one really. Comes up here unless they’re feeling down”  
“Then why are you here”  
“Well I was going to look at the stars-“ before she could finish Malfoy scoffed.  
“Something funny?” She swallowed the lump in her throat as she prepared to stand her ground against him.  
“The stars- what kind of nonsense” his head bowed and she slowly moved towards him. Standing about a meter from him. As she drew near the open, her skin prickled and a shiver shot down her spine. It was the end of November so the autumn had turned cold and foul as winter slowly crept its way back to hogwarts. She was cold and she had about 4 layers of uniform on she couldn’t imagine how cold draco would be in Just a shirt.  
“They’re actually quite interesting when you learn about them”  
“Go on then what’s so interesting about them”  
Blair was taken back by draco actually asking a question about the stars rather than belittling her.  
“Well you see that really bright star there, that is called Sirius- it’s the brightest star in our solar system, it’s also known as the Dog Star” Malfoy Let out a quiet laugh.  
“Well potters god father was named appropriately”  
“Sirius black is Harry’s god father?”  
“You didn’t know that?” Draco turns to face her and she finally gets a look at his face. He looked immensely tired and his skin looked placid, like he was about to keel over.  
“No I don’t really know Harry” she hums looking back at the sky, “you’ll like this one- you see that cluster of stars, it looks like a triangle with a long curving tail?” She points up, her fingers tracing the constellation. Draco squints, “kind of”  
“Well that is draco, the dragon constellation”  
His eyebrows knit together, “that’s a terrible looking dragon”  
“Yeah well they had to get creative- I mean some of them are outrageous- some how a square and a few lines is a lion but they get a gold star for imagination.”  
“So what is that star” he points up towards the left to one of the brighter stars near the crescent moon.  
“That not a star”  
“Then what is it?”  
“That’s Venus, the second planet in our solar system, named after the goddess of love”  
“I never knew you could see the planets are there any other planets?”  
“Well that’s Jupiter and there’s Saturn- and mercury” she quickly points at the brightest stars in the night sky and draco looked rather baffled.  
“How do you know all this stuff?”  
“My granddad used to have a telescope in the attic; it was his study where he worked he never let anyone up there but her would let me in when I was younger and teach me about the stars- he always wanted to be an Astronomer but ended up working for a law firm”  
“I never understood the fascination people have with the sky”  
“I like looking up there because it’s very grounding, I mean in comparison to all that, we really are nothing, barely a blink in the life of the universe, makes you realise how short our lives are”  
“Bit morbid”  
She shrugs her shoulders, “just got to make the most of it.”  
There was brief silence, the cool breeze whizzing last them as they stared into the vast unknown above them.  
“Hey look- about what I said the other day- when I said you were-“ draco began but she cut him off by scoffing.  
“A a rotten mud blood? A disgrace to wizards everywhere?” She hisses glaring at him.  
Hearing his words spoken back to him made him flinch.  
“Yeah I’m sorry- I didn’t mean to— are you crying?” He stares at Blair in bewilderment and She was even more confused than him.  
“What I’m not crying?” She couldn’t understand what he was talking about, she felt angry not sad, she would know if she were crying.  
He reaches out towards her face and she almost flinches away from his touch, but she lets his knuckle graze her cheek wiping away tears.  
“What” she quickly wipes her face with the sleeve of her jumper, she didn’t feel like she was crying, she didn’t even notice her eyes water.  
Before she could exclaim her confusion the wind turned icy cold, chilling them both, their breaths clouding in front of them like a couple of fire breathing Hungarian horntails.  
A knot of anxiety and dread grew in her stomach, she looked at draco and saw his hands shaking, “whats going on?” He asks quickly spinning around and observing the astronomy tower.  
And that when Blair saw it she tried to scream but couldn’t get anything out, she gripped at dracos arm pulling at him.  
They both staggered back as the black veiled phantom drifted towards them, it’s face a black hole of despair. All happiness and warmth seemed to melt from the world, like everything was submerged in black and white film. It’s bony icy fingers reached out towards draco as Blair fumbled with her wand.  
“Expecto patronum” she yelled pointing the wand at the ghastly being. Her hands were trembling and she felt absolutely rotten, she struggled to think of anything happy, nothing would work.  
She tried again with more urge, pulling every shred of magic she could feel to the surface but it still didn’t work.  
The dementor hovered over draco, his skeleton hands on his shoulders, it’s jaw unhinged as it leant towards his face.  
“Expect patronum!” She screamed as her vision became clouded with black.  
The last thing she saw as the world twisted into darkness was the dementor sucking the soul from draco and a bright white light screaming from her wand.


	2. Chapter 2

She awoke an hour later with numb fingers and pounding head ache. She was tucked under the thin blankets of the medical ward, her back aching from where she had landed when she passed out.   
“Irvin thank heavens you’re awake” professor Mcgonagall was suddenly at the side of her bed, looking down at her with concern.  
“I feel sick” Blair mutters sitting up and leaning over the edge of the bed trying to settle her churning stomach.   
“I am not surprised, how on earth did you manage to conjure a patronus?” She whispers in a harsh tone.   
Blair looks at her with wide eyes, “what? I actually did it?” Immediately Harry wandered into her mind.   
“Yes and it’s a good thing you did, you saved Malfoys life”   
She laughs to herself before stopping, feeling her stomach lurch, “I’m never letting him live that down” as soon as she uttered them words she was grabbing the metal bucket from the bed side table and emptying the contents of her stomach.  
“How on earth did you know how to cast such an advanced spell?” McGonagall ponders as Blair sat hugging the metal bucket.  
She knew she couldn’t tell her professor about Harry’s secret lessons so she quickly mustered up a comprehensive lie her foggy brain could come up with.   
“I read about them a while ago and when I saw what was happening to Malfoy I had to just try”   
“And what were you and Malfoy doing up at the astronomy tower past curfew” she cocked an eyebrow at Blair.   
Blair debated just telling her they were star gazing but that just sounded fake, “do you really want that answer professor?” Blair places the bucket down on the floor and grabs the water from her bed stand.   
“Very well 15 points to slytherin for your bravery but 5 points deducted for breaking curfew” and with that McGonagall was swiftly walking away.  
“Wait, what were dementors doing in school grounds?” Blair called out.   
McGonagall paused and gave her a look that made her extremely nervous, before continuing out the medical wing.   
Blair didn’t sit around as soon as McGonagall was gone she was up out of bed and zipping up the moving staircases to the Gryffindor dormitory. She knew Harry must have some information on why dementors were here and why they would attack Draco.  
It was just a matter of getting into the dorm. In the past she managed to get into the hufflepuff dormitory, so surely she could sweet talk to fat singing lady to let her in.  
It surprisingly didn’t take much, she must’ve realised Blair’s urgency and let her in, but only for a short while if she wasn’t out quickly she will tell a prefect.   
Blair was taken back by how nice the Gryffindor common room was, red leather and velvet, exposed brick and large windows with a roaring log fire, it was a sharp contrast to the slytherin dormitory which she hated it was always cold and dark but what do you expect when you’re in the dungeons.   
“Bloody hell Blair this is your best trick yet” Fred Weasley gasped as she ran down the stairs into the common room, out of breath and looking green in the face.   
“Blair how did you get in here” Harry stood up from the fire place, he’s wearing a red knitted sweater that looked home made, probably molly Weasleys work.   
“Harry!” Blair gasps racing over to him and grabbing him by the arm, dragging him away from the cluster of gryffindors lounging on the sofas around the fire. Fred and George teasingly wolf whistled as the pair tucked themselves into the door way that lead to one of the sleeping quarters.   
“What is it what’s wrong?” Harry asked immediately noticing the alarm on her face.   
“Dementor- attacked me and  
Draco In the astronomy tower” she looked like she was about to pass out again.  
“What?” Harry snapped, touching her arm comfortingly as he noticed tears well in her eyes.   
“It was going to kill draco, I tried to help him but I blacked out” she leant against the door way feeling unsteady on her feet.   
“I cast a patronus charm, like I actually did it, or I think I did, I didn’t really see it”   
“Jesus Blair, come and sit down, you need to eat” Harry took Blair’s cold hand and guided her I’ve to the fire.   
“What’s happened?” Hermione asks, eyeing Blair up and down.  
“Dementors- attacked Blair and Malfoy in the astronomy tower” Harry briefly explains handing Blair a piece of chocolate.  
“It was awful I thought I died” Blair mutters nibbling on the piece of chocolate.  
“Are you okay?” Hermione asks Blair.  
“I’m fine they didn’t attack me”  
“What about Malfoy?” Harry juts in slumping down on the sette.  
“I don’t know i woke up in the medical wing he wasn’t there and McGonagall didn’t mention him”   
“What were you and Malfoy even doing up there?”   
“Would you believe me if I told you we were star gazing?”   
She smiles up at Harry who looks like he’s about to burst out laughing.  
“You? Malfoy? Star gazing?” He cocks an eyebrow at her.  
“Don’t ask I’m as confused as you”   
Blair continues to eat the chocolate and ask Harry and Hermione questions about dementors but none of them could think of any reason why they would attack two students on school grounds- of course there was suspicions on it having something to do with Voldemort but even if it was why attack Malfoy, he’s basically a death eater by association it’s no secret Lucius Malfoy was at Voldemort’s beck and call.   
“How the bloody hell did she get in here” Ronald Weasley has graced the room with his presence.  
“Hello Ron” she beams at the red head.  
“You look like shit”   
“Well you don’t look much better yourself” Blair mutters as he sits next to Harry on the sette.  
“You should probably get back to your dorm before someone catches you here” Hermione nibbles at her bottom lip, her eyes flickering to the main entrance.  
“I know- this dormitory is so much nicer than slytherins” she huffs looking up at the huge red tapestry’s covering the wall where the fire place is. She finally felt settled with the warmth of the fire on her face and the comfort of her new friends.   
“What? is your dormitory different for ours?” Ron asks, grabbing a fistful of sweets from the coffee table.  
“So much more different I mean we are literally in the dungeons, it’s cold and dark I mean we don’t even have windows that look out over the grounds”  
“You do have windows though?” Harry asks in almost concern.  
Blair rolls her eyes and laughs “Christ yes we aren’t that deprived, the windows just look into the Great Lake, I can always see them noisy sirens, the ugly things don’t know how to shut up- reminds me of Ron” she smiles fondly as Ron who retaliates by throwing a wrapper at her.  
“I’ll see you tomorrow then, I’ll try find more information about whatever just happened.” Blair unsteadily gets to her feet, and Harry is quickly up and at her side causing Ron to stare knowingly at Hermione who stifles a laugh.   
“I’ll walk you down “ Harry offers before the pair hurry to the entrance, Blair quickly caught the last of Hermiones words as the painting closes.  
“Shut up Ron it’s kind of sweet how much he-“   
The painting closes and Blair thanks the fat singing lady who vouches to never let her in again.   
“Are you sure you’re alright” Harry whispers as the walk through the dark halls.  
“Yeah just shaken they’re awful things, dementors”   
“Well at least you won’t need me to help you with the patronus charm”   
“Oh no you are helping me Harold, I will see what animal my patronus is wether it’s the last thing I do” she mutters as the descend down the large spiral staircase that leads to the slytherin dormitory, Harry had never been down here before and he had to agree with Blair it was freezing.   
“Okay I’ll see you Tomorrow then” Harry smiles as the approach the entrance to her dorm.  
“Yeah it’s a date, careful walking back I think snape on on patrol” 

She quietly slips into the common room and notices the fire still burning menacingly meaning someone was still up, she hoped it was draco, she wanted to make sure he was alright or at least alive but she was disappointed when she spotted Blaise curled up on the black leather sofa with his nose in a book.  
“Hey Blaise” Blair whispers and the boy startles, dropping his book.  
“Blair! You’re alright, snape told us what happened to you and draco” he exclaims rather too loudly.   
“Shush” Blair laughs shrugging off her robe.  
“Sorry forgot people were asleep”   
“We aren’t all nocturnal like you” Blair smiles picking up Blaises book.   
Blaise was her first friend she ever made, they were quite a duo but he eventually made friends with Malfoy and she found herself hiding in the room of requirements, they naturally drifted apart.   
“Have you seen Malfoy?” Blair asks kicking of her shoes.   
“I haven’t but he’s alright, think he’s asleep”   
She nods her head and yawns, “I’ll talk tomorrow”   
“Goodnight Blair”   
“Goodnight Blaise” she whispers walking past him and ruffling his jake before disappearing into the girls sleeping quarters.

“Well what did you think of last night when you did it?” Harry’s voice echoes around the room of requirements, tugging his shirt sleeves over his hands.  
“I don’t remember? I wasn’t really focusing on much- I mean I was fucking panicking” Blair fumbles with her wand and glances at her reflection on the large mirror. She had Harry’s cardigan wrapped around her, it was soft and smelled of Harry’s cologne, the sleeves were grazed and fraying but it was incredibly warm.  
“Well maybe just think of last night”  
“It’s hardly a happy memory I nearly died-“ she lets out a laugh, “the last thing I would’ve saw before I died was draco Malfoy- what kind of sinister joke”   
“I can’t imagine he wouldn’t be too pleased with me being his last memory either” she breathes deeply and angles her wand, her mind replaying the events of the astronomy tower.   
“Expecto Partrum!” She yelled but nothing.   
“I think- I don’t know what I think- i dont do it a lot” she sighs twiddling the wand.  
“Maybe don’t focus on the actual part where you realised the dementor was there, think before that, maybe it’ll jog your memory of what you were thinking when you cast the charm-“ she sensed Harry pacing behind her before appearing in her peripheral vision.  
She mustered as much strength as she could, thinking about the stars, the Sirius star, Draco constellation, she thought about the first shooting star she ever saw in her grandfathers study, how excited she was he told her it was magical- if only her grandfather could see her now literally studying at a magical school. She focussed on that, in her grandads study.  
“Expecto patronum” she yells once again, frustration evident in her voice.  
“Calm down, breath” Harry mutters watching as her cheeks heating up in a bubbling fit of rage.   
“I just-“ she raises her hand to throw her wand but Harry rushes toward her and grabs her wand before she could throw it.  
“Dean uhm broke his wand by doing that” Harry whispers, his hand over hers lowering her arm.  
“Right- sorry I have a short fuse” she looks at Harry briefly realising how close they were.  
“Just don’t overthink it” Harry stands behind her, holding her hand and guiding her wand.   
She could feel his breath on her neck, causing her heart to drum violently in her chest.  
“Don’t force it just let it come to you”   
She closes her eyes and feels heat running up her arm where Harry was touching.  
“Expecto patronum”   
Blue light erupted from the end of her wand startling the pair. They watching in amazement as the animal unfurled it’s wings. It was the biggest patronus Harry has ever seen.  
“Holy shit” Blair exclaims looking over shoulder at Harry, his face was illuminated in a glow, a big stupid grin on his face. He looked remarkably cute.  
“It’s a dragon, your patronus is a bloody dragon Blair”   
“Well I can see that” she grins turning back to look at the Charm she casted. It was mesmerising, the way it soared and dipped, its scales shining, the the wind from its wings was practically knocking them off their feet.  
Blair began feeling tired and plagued with fatigue like the spell was draining her. She lowered her wand and the dragon retreated basically knocking her back into Harry. They both stumbled back and tumbled to the floor.   
“I actually did it! And it’s a fucking dragon!” She twists around from her spot on the floor and lunges at Harry, wrapping her arms around him tightly.   
“Thank you” she whispers pulling away from Harry.  
“For what It’s all you”  
“For actually believing in me, everyone in this school has given up on me”   
“Well I haven’t, none of us here have”   
She smiles shyly at him realising she basically sitting in his lap.   
“We should head to dinner before people get suspicious” Blair gets to her feet and pulls Harry up with her.

They walk to the great hall together and part ways to go sit at there house tables.   
“Where have you been?” Blaise asks as she sits down opposite him his eyes lingering in the her cardigan.  
“Oh I was wrapping my essay on vampires, I wanted to get done in one go” she explains grabbing a helping of mash potatoes.  
“Really? Then where’s this from?” Blaise reaches over the table and tugs the sleeve of Harry’s cardigan. She then notices then dark red thread along the cuffs of the sleeves and down the buttons of the cardigan.   
“Oh well” she instinctively looks over her shoulder at Harry who just so happen to be looking at her.  
“Oh well” Blaise replies looking at her with shock, “that’s Harry potters”   
“Well if that’s the case I’m sure it’ll make great fuel for the fire” a familiar snobby voice rings in her ears, she looks down the table and saw the flash of blonde.   
“Sod off Malfoy” she snaps looking the boy up and down.   
He looked fine, unphased even, as if he didn’t almost die last night.   
“Why don’t you go sit with the gryffindors, you seem to be spending so much time with them, I mean they are full of Mudbloods, you fit right in”   
“Shut your mouth” Blair suddenly yells standing up abruptly, everyone in the hall looking at her, “you never know when to stop do you!” She snaps staring at him like she was trying to explode his head with her mind. He was looking at her like she’d shot his dog.   
“Leave Irvin, go join the blood traitors”   
“Do you even hear yourself? Just fuck off malfoy” 

And with that she left the great hall without having a bite of her food, she decided to head down to the girls lavatories and mull things over.  
“Myrtle you’re never going to believe the bullshit-“   
“Oh hello Irvin long time no see, had another fight with Malfoy.”  
“Oh yeah you betcha” blair crumples to the floor by the sinks as myrtle floats through a stall door, looking the same as ever, translucent and sad.  
“Yes quite frankly that boy needs to learn more words other than Mudblood”   
“Well he is a pure blood it’s like their favourite word” myrtle kind of floats in front of her lying in her stomach with her feet kicked up and chin in her hands.  
“It wouldn’t be so bad but last night he literally apologised to me about calling me a Mudblood and then today he turns around and calls me it again after I saved his life” she huffs wrapping the cardigan around her.  
“All Malfoys are ungrateful i wouldn’t bother expecting them to change.”   
“I just- I cast my first Patronus charm today and do you know what I thought of that made it work? Malfoy fucking Malfoy, and his dumb face”   
“Oh dear Irvin that sounds like you have a crush on our prejudice blonde boy.”   
“I do not”   
Yeah she does.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for some beef with Harry and some sad draco content .

The weather slowly started taking a stormy turn over the next few days, dark clouds shrouded the castle, thunderstorms frequently rattling the heavens, making it tricky for the quidditch team to practice. Usually Blair would be sat in the stands watching them practice but since the weather was foul and miserable, she was hauled up in the corner of the library, perched on a window seat with her feet up absorbed into a Stephen king novel. It was nice for her to just sit and get lost in a fictional world For a while, she hadn’t read a book that wasn’t school related in ages and then she saw ‘the stand’ at the bottom of her trunk, she forgot she packed it in September and never started reading so she made a start on it a few days ago and she was flying through the pages. 

“What are you reading”   
Blair didn’t even look up from her book, she knew who it was and she refused to acknowledge his existence.  
“You’ve always read these books by the same author,” the book was suddenly ripped from her grasp and she was Forced to look up at draco.  
“Is he a muggle author? I’ve never heard of him” he examines the front cover before his eyes scan the blurb, his fingers between the pages holding her spot. Blair picked up on it, it was a small gesture but it was oddly kind coming from draco.   
“Give it back Malfoy” she hisses reaching up and snatching the book from him.   
“I can’t remember the last book I actually read for fun”   
“Draco can’t you take the hint that I don’t want to talk to you”   
He then sits down on the other side of the window seat that was far to small for two people, he basically sat on her feet.   
She sighed in defeat when she realised he wasn’t leaving anytime soon.  
“I know I wouldn’t want to talk to me either, I just wanted to say thank you, for you know, saving my life”   
“Your idea of thanking me is by calling me a Mudblood? You’re disgusting Malfoy” she spits glaring at him, his expression unreadable as he stares out the rain distorted window.   
“You’re right I am- I don’t like being this way it just-“   
“If you think you can use your family as an excuse you can just get up and leave now, you can’t just go around making other people’s lives hell just because you’re going through a bad time”  
He presses his head against the window, his breath fogging the cold glass and sighs. A heavy silence falls between the pair as she stares at the side of his face as if it would give her some insight into the thoughts bouncing around in his small brain.  
“Look Blair I- I am sorry like really sorry for well everything-“  
“You think I believe that?” she huffs shoving her book mark into her book.  
He leans towards her, his hair falling in his face.  
“Hear me out I want to be better, I don’t want to be like father”  
“Its not my responsibility to make you a better person Malfoy”  
“I know” suddenly his hand was resting on her knee, I don’t even think he was aware he had done it but Blair was painfully aware. It wasn’t anything to overthink just draco getting heated and angry with himself, it emphasised his Frustration and urgency but Blair couldn’t help but stare at his hand touching her skin and the thick sliver ring around his ring finger, it looked like a family heirloom.  
“I’m not asking you to fix me, just letting you know if you catch me being a-“  
“Ass wipe” Blair interjects, watching as his jaw clenches at the insult.  
“Right, just knock me down a few pegs will you?”  
Blair pulls her lips into a fine line as she stares at draco, processing his words, she couldn’t believe what he was saying, she couldn’t believe he was self aware.   
“Okay...I think you need to start with getting them old fashioned prejudices out of your head, I know they’ve been brayed into you but just open your eyes draco, we may come from completely different backgrounds but we are the same, the same amount of magic flows through us, I know I’m not the best example but being Muggle-Born doesn’t make me any less of a witch, I mean look at Grainger she’d give all the teachers here a run for their money.”   
“I know that I just-“ his hand is removed from her knee and she suddenly shivers as the cold sweeps her.  
He stands up slowly and brushes of his trousers, “I’m meant to be meeting some people to do the potions work, I’ll talk to you later Irvin” and with that he’s walking away.  
Blair watches him walk to the other end of the library, greeting Crab and Goyle, and sitting at the big oak tables tucked between the shelves.   
She shakes her head and sighs, she’s being doing that a lot lately, sighing.   
She picks her book up and begins reading again. As she made her way through the pages her brain was unsettling her she couldn’t stop thinking about what draco said, he wants to change, the boy who is the biggest daddy’s boy doesn’t want to be like his father. She could still feel the ghost of his hand on her knee, the warmth was still there.  
Eventually, she gave up on reading and crept over to the near by desk to actually finish her essay on vampires, Blair figured actually making her brain think will distract her from draco.   
And it worked but every now and then she would hear him laughing across the library or being shushed by the librarian. It’s hard to not let him creep back in your mind when he’s literally across the room from you.   
After about four hours of pouring over books and papers and ink smudges, she had her essay done, her hand tense and stained from clutching the quill for so long. She read over her writing to check for spelling, but she’d been staring at it so long it looked like chicken scratch, it’s didn’t help that her handwriting was atrocious and writing with quills made it worse. She missed ball point pens.  
There was an hour to kill before dinner so she decided to get another chapter read before heading to the great hall, her legs were feeling numb from sitting all day and her brain felt foggy, all the words seemed to dance across the pages but she powered through it, vaguely following the plot line.   
As she got up to leave she became aware of how hard the rain was lashing against the windows, the melancholy patter of rainfall was now violent and almost deafening. I guess Blair will have to run through the court yard to avoid being soaked. As she approached the exit she glanced over to where draco was sat and saw he was now alone, hunched over his parchment paper. He looked so calm and peaceful, nestled amongst his books with the tall windows emitting a hazy grey glow over everything. He was alone now, Crab and Goyle must’ve already went to the great hall. By now the library was nearly empty and Blair knew If she didn’t hurry she would have to awkwardly walk into the great hall when it was full of people.   
“Draco?” She called out in a harsh whisper stopping near his table.   
He looked over to her looking confused at first but his face twists into a small smile when he sees Blair.   
“Are you coming to dinner?”   
Draco looks back down at his paper, as if debating he’d done enough to actually go and eat dinner.  
He shakes his head no, “I’ve got to get this done today”   
Blair frowns and walks over to him, picking up the paper he’d been scribbling on. His handwriting was as you expected, beautiful cursive with tall curves and thin lines, she wondered for a moment if he’d write her Christmas cards for her.   
She quickly read over his work, most of the words went over head, she really hated potions, it was like baking and she was so bad at baking.   
“Just finish that paragraph and come to dinner, the library will still be here when you get back” Blair urges placing the paper back down in front of him.   
“Fine” he huffs beginning to carefully write the rest of the paragraph.  
“Which books need put back?” Blair questions picking up the magical drafts and potions book. She hated the sight of that book.   
“Leave it I’ll do it”  
“Which books need put back?” She repeats in a harsher tone, causing draco to roll his eyes.  
“Basically all of them apart from them two” he grabs two books and tucks them down next to him on the chair.  
Blair gets to work putting all the books back in their appropriate places while draco works in silence. By the time she’d finished that draco had packed his things away and neatly placed his stuff on the library table.  
“We’re late to dinner” Blair mutters as they leave the library. The rain was still coming down heavily and she’s probably going to have to sit in the great hall in sopping wet clothes.  
“Your fault, you didn’t have to wait for me Irvin”   
“Oh I’m sorry for being nice” they walk down to the open entrance into the court yard. Both immediately halting under the last shred of shelter.  
“I hate the rain” draco mutters crossing his arms over his chest to protect himself from the cold, his eyes drawing up to the grey abyss above.  
“I love the rain”   
“Of course you would”   
“Know any spells to keep us dry?”  
“Nope” draco huffs, “I mean if we just run it won’t be so bad right?”   
“Running in general is bad” Blair comments watching the circles of ripples in the large puddles on the path.  
“We no use delaying the inevitable” draco steps out from under the shelter and immediately his clothes were wet.  
“I’m not waiting for you Irvin!” He yells turning around to look back at her.   
She runs after him, breathing in deeply from shock, the rain was so cold on her skin, she was regretting only wearing a jumper today.  
“It’s fucking cold” she yells catching up to draco and knocking into him causing him to stumble into a large puddle.  
He glares at her, his shoes were soaked through. “Blair!” He exclaims and she erupts into laughter but quickly stops once draco decides to kick up rain water from the puddle at her.   
“You’re such a child” she curses shoving him again motivating him to continue walking.  
“You’re such a child” he mimics her voice in a whiny tone, before running his hands through his wet hair, slicking it back.  
“Is that first year Malfoy I see?” Blair teases running ahead of Malfoy, drawing closer to the other side of the court yard. They were both already soaked to the bone it was no point in trying to stay dry as possible now.   
“At least I didn’t look like you in first year”   
“Hey my braces really added to my looks” she jokes finally running under the shelter of the next building.  
“Filch is going to kill us” Blair laughs looking back at the pools they’d left in the hallway.  
“I could end a drought with all this water” draco mutters ringing the bottom of his jumper, watching as water pours from it. 

They arrive at the great hall and swing open the Heavy doors and of course everyone’s head turned to look at the two drowned rats standing there.  
“Why does everyone have to stare” Blair giggles hurrying over to her usual seat at the table opposite Blaise, Draco sat at his spot a few seats down from her. Blair briefly locked eyes with McGonagall who was looking at her with both disappointment and amusement. Blair has to admit it was probably a weird sight to see the two people who are usually at each other’s throats, staggering into dinner sopping wet and laughing like drunken fools.   
“It’s raining outside” Blair declares to Blaise.  
“You don’t say!” Blaise remarks, his words dripping with sarcasm. 

After dinner Blair head down to the dormitory, changed out of her soaked clothes and decided to get ready for tonight festivities. It’s Ebbs 16th birthdays on Monday but since it’s Saturday we decided to have a ‘get together’ in the common room, we even convinced the prefects ( which wasn’t hard since draco and Pansy were the prefects) to smuggle in some of ebbs friends from the other houses. It wasn’t anything too big or dramatic we just had some birthday cake and hoarded sweets from hogsmede, some of the older students managed to sneak a keg of mead. We all love some good old-fashioned underaged drinking.   
She didn’t really have time Properly dry her hair so just tied it back into a pony tail and put on the dress she wore to her Christmas dinner last year, it was a dark green velvet dress that came to the middle of her thighs with small sliver stars dotted over it and sheer lace sleeves that puffed out, showing her new tattoo on her wrist.  
She Paired the dress with some thin tights and a some lace up boots, she put on some mascara and a tinted lip balm and with that she was done. She was still cold from sitting for an hour in wet clothes but she hoped someone had the fire going in the common room.  
“Is ebb here yet?” Blair asks Minty, the petite girl who occupied the bed next to hers.  
“Nope, you know what she’s like, that girl will be late to her own wedding” minty was sprawled out on her back already fully dressed in a black skirt and glittery off the shoulder top with very dramatic eyeliner covering her eyes. Blair was close with minty but they rarely hung out outside of the dormitory, they’d sit with each other in classes and hang about in the common room from time to time.   
Blair herself didn’t know ebb too well, she was pansys best friend which I probably why she wasn’t very close with ebb, Pansy scared the life out of Blair. She was only attending tonight as a courtesy, she’ll probably end up slipping away in a few hours to hide somewhere and practice some of the things she’d been learning in dumbledores army.   
Blair made her way down the stairs to the common room and places Ebbs birthday card on the coffee table then made a B-line for the fire in the hopes of warming her bones.  
“You clean up nicely” Blaise chimes grinning at Blair from the bottom of the stairs that lead to the boys room.   
“Blaise I think you’ve seen this exact dress at least 3 times since I got it”   
“And every single time you wear it’s like I’m seeing you for the first time” he says in a flirtatious tone as he walks towards her, fiddling with the sleeves of his shirt.  
“Wow that line was disgusting” Blair laughs shaking her head at him, “save the flirting for Minty” she tuts, getting annoyed with his fidgeting.   
“Come here” she hisses grabbing his shirt sleeves and folding them up his forearms neatly.  
“There” she pats his chest, “you look about 2% better than you do normally”   
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me in our 5 years of friendship”   
“Yeah our five long years of friendship”  
Everyone always assumed Blaise and Blair would end up together and there even was a point last year were it was nearly a possibility, they went to the Yule ball together but they are both aware they’re far too good as friends and would tear each other up in a relationship so this how they remain, friends, who flirt with each other when they’re bored.   
People started fizzling into the room, dumping presents and cards and balloons on the coffee table, someone had started playing music on the record player and a few drinks had already been spilled on the decades old carpet. Minty eventually joined Blaise and Blair by the fire place, the trio chatter for a while and then ebb finally showed up with Pansy by her side. Ebb was very pretty and a perfect slytherin, she fit in so well unlike Blair.   
She hung around for the cake and had a few drinks of mead before suddenly growing very tired of situation. She always felt like this during events like this especially when it’s centred around slytherin, it’s moments like this that make her wonder why she was placed in this house, what could she possibly have in common with these people to wind up here.  
Eventually Blaise and minty got back to their usual antics, they’ve been pining over each other since September and it’s gotten to the point where it’s irritating, like it’s so obvious you like each other just get together already. Minty and blaises hopelessness mixed with the garish flirting coming from Draco and Pansy, Blair couldn’t help but let her mind wander to Harry. She wishes she was sitting on the floor of the room of requirement with him but instead she was here, in the claustrophobic common room surrounded by people she disliked strongly.  
“You good Irvin?” Blaise tugs at Blair’s sleeve, pulling her out of her head, “you’re looking pale”   
“Oh yeah” she clears her throat, her grip tightening on her cup, “im feeling a bit sick, might go for a wander”   
Blaise steps closer to Blair with concern, “you want some company”   
“Oh god no, when I get back you and minty better have hooked up, it’s getting on my nerves”   
“I’m not promising anything, stay safe okay I’ll wait up for you” and with that, she slipped from the party. As she was leaving she climbed the steps that lead to the exit. It was already much cooler and darker, the brick walls seemed to immediately dull the eruptions of noise, she immediately felt her mood lifting as she escaped the chaos.  
Well she did feel better until she saw someone tucked away on the steps, hiding from the party.  
“Malfoy” she exclaims in surprise as he looks down at her.  
“Irvin” he imitates her tone, his eyes scanning her up and down making her feel self conscious.  
“You alright?” She asks folding her arms over her chest trying to hide herself.  
“That’s you’re favourite thing to ask me”  
“Well yeah? You always look miserable when I see you, or is that just how your face is?”  
“Hahah funny” draco mocks, scoffing at her remark.  
“Seriously though, you good?”   
He slowly nods his head, “Yeah just need a breather”   
“Don’t blame you i don’t think I would be able to breath with Pansy all over me like that”   
Blair never saw it because of how dimly lit the stairwell was but dracos face turned a fiery shade of red at her remark.  
“Where you off to, sneaking off the see potter are we?” His eyes land on the tattoo on her wrist, it was barely visible under the green sheer fabric and bad lighting, it could look like anything.  
“Even if I am, it wouldn’t be any of your business” she grins making her way up the stairs but stopping at the step draco was stood on, his hand grabbed her bicep gently.  
“You look...” he paused as if trying to find the correct thing to say, “amazing tonight Blair” he continues, it wasn’t the word he wanted to use but that would’ve probably been weird for him to say.  
She smiles at him and continues up the steps.  
“Have a good night draco”

And with that she was sprinting up the the steps and shuffling around the corridors to the room of requirement. The halls of the castle always felt different on the weekends, everything was more relaxed, The curfew was basically ignored and if you were caught sneaking about the halls or in another houses dormitory you basically got off Scot free. She dipped into the invisible room like she’d done a thousand times before and was thankful to find it empty. It was so quiet and cold, she could hear the castle settling and water dripping from a leak somewhere.   
She let out a breathe she didn’t know she was holding and walked to the centre of the room, drawing her wand she had hidden in her dress pocket. After allowing the cool air to relax her, quietly, she cast the Patronus charm. It took a few tries but when she thought about earlier the vision of draco standing in the rain grinning like an idiot at her, the dragon flew from her wand, the force always nearly sends her flying. She hated it, she hated the fact that it was draco that made the charm work, she couldn’t work out why.   
She watched the dragon gracefully soar around the room, spreading its leathery wings out and blowing blue fire from it snout, she could almost feel the heat. Her relaxed state didn’t last because she was startled by a door slamming, she nearly withdrew her wand but when she saw who had entered the room she just kept the charm going.   
“Neville, hello” she smiles at the boy he didn’t even acknowledge her presence he was too busy staring at the dragon with his jaw on the floor.  
“Jesus Harry told us it was a dragon I didn’t think it would be this big” his face was illuminated in a blue glow as his eyes tracked the beast.   
“What brings you here?” Blair asks lowering her wand, the dragon fading into nothing.   
“Oh” his eyes land on her and then immediately to the wand sitting on a cabinet across the room.  
She laughs and grabs his wand, pacing over to him to give him it.   
“Why are you all dressed up”   
“Because it’s Ebenezer Greens birthday party”   
“Then why are you here?” He looks around the room and shivers, the cold starting to get to him.  
“Because it’s Ebenezer Greens birthday party” she repeats and he nods in agreement.  
“That’s fair, id be down here too, they all scare me” he looks at Blair timidly and she picks up on it.   
“Do I scare you Neville?” She tilts her head to look at him, trying not to show her amusement. Blair was the furthest thing from scary.  
He was silent, his eyes catching the tattoo on her arm which caused her to instinctively hide it behind the ruffles of her dress.  
“Kind of yeah” Blair laughs and pats his shoulder causing him to jump which only amused her more.  
She suddenly drops the laughs and stares dead straight at him “I’m not the one you should be scared of” she says seriously trying to intimidate him more.  
He looked like he was about to hit the hills running and screaming, “I’m kidding Neville, you’ve got to nothing to worry about” she reassures.  
“Right yeah you still scare me” he laughs nervously, “uhm a few of us are having a games night in the common room, I’m sure you could join us”   
“Anywhere is better than with my house” 

The strong aroma of hot coco and cinnamon immediately greeted her as she entered the warmth of the Gryffindor common room.   
“I have a refugee” Neville announces as they enter the main room. Everyone was huddled over the coffee table by the fire, surprisingly playing monopoly. And by playing I mean, arguing.   
They all turn their attention to the two entering the room and she immediately felt overdressed. Everyone looked so cute wearing jumpers and pyjamas.   
Harry looked up and smiled at her, then quickly did a double take when he noticed her, “wow you look- amazing” he grins at her and she blushes, shyly walking over to the sofa Harry was sat at.  
“Thank you, i wish I were in my pyjamas” she laughs nervously, her eyes on the board game.  
“Well You could join the game but I think Ronald Is about the throw the game into the fire” Hermione is sat on the floor leaning against the sofa, nursing a warm cup of cinnamon hot chocolate.  
“I think I’ll pass playing, one too many times has this game nearly caused a divorce in my family.” She leans back into the sofa, her leg touching Harry’s.  
“What’s the occasion then?” Harry says pinching the fabric of her dress sleeve.  
“Slytherin party, rather uneventful” she shrugs sinking down further into the sofa.   
Harry was staring at her with quite an unreadable look and it confused her until she realised what he was staring at. The tattoo on her wrist. Now more than ever was she regretting the decision she made over summer.  
He suddenly gets to his feet looking alarmed.  
“Harry it-“ she hisses trying to calm him down before he causes a scene but it was too late.  
“It’s that- is that the dark mark?” He snaps, his tone throwing Blair’s confidence.   
Blair springs up to her feet huffing, “are you that hesitant to trust me? You think I’m capable of becoming a death eater?”   
They were now standing face to face, the whole room covered in a thick silence.  
“I can’t believe I have to prove myself to you” she hisses pulling up the sleeve of her dress revealing the infamous tattoo. She understood why people would mistake it for the Sinister dark mark and she probably should have thought it through more when she got it but at the time she had never seen the dark mark.   
It was a long winding viper snake, bearing it’s fangs and tongue, it’s body winding between the branch of blooming lotus flowers. She let Harry see it but barely, before he opened his mouth she was tugging her sleeve down and storming her way out of the dormitory, not allowing any of them to utter a word. 

She went back to the slytherin dormitory but as she was making her way down the stairs she could still hear the voices and music from behind the door, she wasn’t entirely ready to head back into the party so she opts to sit on the window ledge that looked out over the Great Lake, it was basically ground level with the water and through the rain streaked window you could see the reflection of the moon rippling on the surface of the lake, the mountains surrounding the castle was illuminated by its ghostly glow. Burying her face in her hands, she took in a deep breath and allowed herself to feel the musky air in her lungs.  
“Trouble in paradise?”  
She snaps her head up and sees draco standing a couple steps down from her, his shoulder leaning on the wall and his hands shoved in his trouser pockets.  
“I’m starting to think you’re stalking me” she says trying to sound witty but her tone fell flat, she sounded miserable.  
“You seem to like sitting in windows” he observes sitting down on the ledge next to her making sure to keep his distance from her.  
“I just like the rain” she explains her eyes watching the light glitter and dance across the waters surface.   
“Why?”   
“I don’t know it makes me feel at peace, the sound of it is like a lullaby and the smell of rain on a dry summer day, I wish I could bottle it...and nothing makes you feel more alive than running around in the rain”   
“You have a funny way of looking at things you know that right?” Draco smiles at her, she couldn’t tell if he was drunk or not, if he was he’s doing a good job of hiding it.   
She shrugs, “you’ve got to romanticise the little things, helps me get through the hard stuff”   
Draco wanted to question what she meant by hard stuff but didn’t want to push her into talking about difficult things.  
“Why are you out here?”  
“Hiding from Pansy”   
She pulls an amused face, “and why are you doing that?”   
He slouches back against the window, “we had a bit of a falling out”   
“Ah so you’re the one having trouble in paradise?”   
“Pansy is a nightmare” he groans, screwing his eyes shut.   
“Why don’t you end things with her” Blair crosses her legs and leans back on the window.  
“You don’t think I’ve tried? she’s psycho” he pauses “and besides if she’s not around who else do I have?”   
That was enough for Blair to know that Draco was Intoxicated, he would never say this to her, he would never allow himself to be this vulnerable.   
“You have loads of people draco, probably more than you realise” she leans towards him and rests her hand on top of his.   
“Yeah it’s hard to tell who’s friends with me because of me or because of status”   
“Well I can assure you I’m not here for either of them” Blair mutters causing Draco to look at her with confusion.  
“Then why are you here Irvin?” His voice suddenly turns harsh and sour.  
“Because we keep crossing paths and-“ she pauses as she feels dracos hand move beneath hers, she was expecting him to move it away but instead he just intertwines their fingers, causing her breath the hitch in her throat. Was she really holding hands with Draco Malfoy?  
“I just don’t know you yet”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time for some self realisation and quidditch.

The next day Blair woke up early to thunder rattling the building. She didn’t bother trying to sleep longer,the weather wouldn’t allow such a thing, so she got changed and crept into the common room, bracing for the mess that would greet her.  
The common room looked like someone let a troll loose, the whole place was covered in empty cups, glitter and the smell of mead clung to the air. She seemed to be the only person awake so decided to make a start cleaning the room so it wouldn’t be too much hassle for the hungover slytherins to tackle.   
She pushed all the furniture back to it’s original place and gathered some of the empty cups and disposed of them, she then went to the bathroom and brought through some bin bags, cloths and disinfectant. She left them on the coffee table so whoever decides to clean the place wouldn’t have to hunt around for the cleaning supplies. She packs her notebook, a bottle of water and an apple in her shoulder Bag and left the dorm.   
As she walked through the castle she debated going to sit outside, even though the clouds were rumbling with electricity it wasn’t raining so she decided to go sit on the wooden jetty that went out onto the lake, near the boat house.   
She sat with her feet over the edge and wrote in her journal for awhile, enjoying the brisk morning air and watching the sun rise slowly, the golden rays seeming to push the storm clouds away. The scenery was as beautiful as you’d imagine, it was truly a blessing that the school was in such a scenic part of the country. She’d never be able to do this at home, just sit by the lake watching the ducks and the the golden light illuminate the mountain ridges and the architecture Of the castle. She did this sort of thing a lot, wander about in her own, find quiet places in the school to just read or write or even just sit and contemplate. After eating her apple and finishing the page she was writing, she began feeling the heavens open up with today’s rainy down pour. Small pellets of water fired down from the sky in a light drizzle, so naturally she started walking back to the safety of the castle, she wasn’t exactly keen on having a repeat of yesterday.  
If she wasn’t already suspicious Malfoy was stalking her she sure as hell was now because as she was walking along the massive garden that surrounded the castle she spotted Draco Malfoy heading her way.  
“We have to stop meeting like this stalker” she calls out pleasantly surprised the boy was awake so early. He seemed pretty out of it last night but here he is standing in the early morning air looking as awake as ever.   
“I need to talk to you” he announces, looking over his shoulder in paranoia.  
“Are you being followed or something?” She asks standing on her toes and looking past him.   
“Yeah by a peacock” he laughs, looking rather flustered.  
“Peacock!” She exclaims immediately scanning the area around the lake for the large colourful bird, she looked utterly terrified, “where? it’s not here is it ?” She panics causing draco to chuckle in amusement.  
“Are you scared of peacocks or something?”   
“Just birds in general but bigger the bird the worse, I do not fuck with peacocks”   
“Stop being such a coward Irvin, they’re beautiful birds”  
“Beautiful but fucking terrifying” she was paranoid as hell now she knew Satan’s birds roamed the school grounds and draco found it hilarious.  
“What do you want? Hurry before they find me”she nervously looks over her shoulder as the pair begin walking around the lake.  
“It’s a bird Irvin it’s not going to kill you”   
“I’ll make sure to write that on your grave when you wake up in the middle of the night and the last thing you see is the peacocks dead eyes staring down at you”   
“You must’ve had a hard time adjusting to the owls” draco mutters looking up to the sky trying to spot any owls flying back to the owlry.   
“I still haven’t, I told my parents I won’t be sending any letters and they better not send me any because I refuse to go near that flying Rodent”   
They walk a quarter the way around the lake, basically having a therapy session trying to work out why Blair had this inexplainable phobia of birds before draco finally got to the thing he wanted to talk to her about.  
“Look I just wanted to say if I said anything - I don’t know weird- last night I didn’t mean to I swear Crab spiked my drink or something”   
“Define weird, I think most things you say are weird-“ suddenly Blair stops dead in her tracks, her shoes squeaking against the wet grass.   
She looked terrified, frozen in spot like a dear in headlights, her bottom lip quivering, it immediately made dracos heart start racing as he followed her line of sight, finally spotting the floating bin bag that is a dementor drifting towards them.  
“What on earth is going on around here” draco yells grabbing Blair’s jacket and pulling her back, both of them running back the way the were previously walking.  
“Why the fuck do they keep attacking you!” Blair yells her voice panicked and alarmed as she glances over her shoulder and caught glimpse of the dementor catching them up. She couldn’t look at it, the sight of it made her stomach lurch and she just felt dropping to the floor screaming and crying.  
“Me? Why are the after you!” Draco yells back not even bothering to look back at the dark creature.   
Eventually Blair could feel her lungs giving in and her legs slowing her down, she knew it was hopeless to try and run from a dementor so she slips the wand from her bag. She spins around making sure to keep walking backwards to keep as much distance from the dementor as possible but draco kept going, slowing down once he realised she wasn’t beside him.  
“What are you doing you muppet” he yells his voice shrill and filled with urgency as he locks his eyes onto the dementor.  
“Expecto Patronum” she screams loudly and for the first time Ever, the spell worked on the first try, a huge ball of light erupts from her wand, humming loudly and flying at the dementor. It pushed it away the same way a magnet repels another magnet. It was only then did she notice the second one zipping around above their heads. She summoned all the strength she could muster and aimed her wand up at the sky, the light from her Charm was blinding. Before she could see if her spell had worked she was collapsing to the ground, drifting in and out of consciousness. Now, this was clearly an issue. When she was watching everyone in the room of requirement do the spell none of them were blacking out, when she did it with Harry she never blacked out so why now? Why is it when she is in extreme danger does the patronus charm decide its nap time? It probably has to do with the dementor but she really has to figure that out. 

“Irvin wake up”  
“Malfoy fuck off” her eyes slowly open and she flinches at the brightness of the sun seeping through the gaps in the clouds.  
“Oh good you’re not dead” malfoys face suddenly blocks the sun from her eyes as he looks down over her.   
Before she’s even comprehending where she’s at, Malfoy is pulling her to her feet but it’s like dragging a corpse.  
“Malfoyyyyy” she protests sounding exhausted and weak. She gets to her feet but leans on him for support as her vision goes splotchy.  
“Are you hurt?”   
“No just feel like I’m going to faint” she touches her hand to her forehead and she just feels like a dead body, her skin was freezing cold and wet from the rain.  
“I can’t believe you did it, I mean you actually did it- Blair Irvin can cast a patronus charm” Draco explains in disbelief his hands on her shoulders steadying her.  
“Alright don’t sound to shocked” she mutters pulling away from his hold, standing still for a second to see if she’d pass out again.  
“We need to get inside” draco says, his eyes scanning the sky for another threat.  
“We need to talk to McGonagall” 

The my both start making their way back to the castle but the longer they were out there the more paranoid they became, once Blair was sure she was working fine they ended up sprinting back into the school, heading straight to McGonagalls office. As they ran through the court yard they encountered the aforementioned peacock, what Malfoy failed to tell her was that there were 3 of them.   
She let out a shriek when she saw the large birds and Malfoy had to push her to keep her moving, “don’t faint” he scoffs pushing her past the birds who couldn’t really give a fuck about Blair and Draco.  
They eventually arrived at McGonagalls office, they weren’t even sure if she’d be in her office this early but sure enough they knocked on the door and it opened by itself.  
“It is 8am- what could you two have already done to get sent to my office” she was sat at her desk in her usual robes, a teacup in hand and a pot of freshly brewed earl grey tea. She must’ve just got into her office and we were already barging in, slightly damp and looking like we’d seen a ghost.  
“Dementor- by the lake” Blair gasps as the door closed behind them.  
“Again?” She looked alarmed and got up from behind her desk, gesturing for the pair to sit down in the tall leather chairs In front of her desk.   
“Yeah two of them- we were just walking around the lake and next thing I know a floating table cloth is chasing us” Blair explains, happily sitting down in the comfy leather chair.   
McGonagall flicks her wand and two tea cups float from the shelf next to her desk and place them selves on the desk in front of the pair.   
“You better be doing something about it, can’t imagine my father will be best pleased to hear that dementors are attacking students”   
“Stop being a brat Malfoy” Blair hisses glaring at Malfoy.  
“What? The schools supposed to protect us, not-“  
“Well I’m sure something is being done- right?” Blair looks up at McGonagall with hope in her eyes.   
The grey teapot levitates towards them and pours some tea into their tea cups, Blair gingerly added a hefty amount of sugar and milk to her tea before sipping it, she was desperate to eat or drink something. That spell really took it out of her.  
“I believe umbridge has sent a letter to the ministry to enquire about a meeting with the department of defence to find out what is going on- but for the mean time, an early curfew and restricted access to the scoops grounds, it will be discussed tonight at dinner” the mention of the new head teachers name made all three of them twist up their faces in disgust.  
“It wouldn’t be such a threat if this bloody school actually taught us how to defend ourselves Rather than them pathetic excuses of defence lessons umbridge is teaching” draco suddenly snaps, and I think it caught both McGonagall and Blair by surprise. Neither of them expected draco to have such a stance on the topic, Blair was impressed.   
“Even if the school was running the old curriculum, the patronus charm is not something we teach students” Malfoy shifts his attention to Blair who suddenly felt nervous under his gaze.  
“How do you know how to do the Patronus Blair?” Draco asks knowingly staring at her.   
He wasn’t an idiot he knew about dumbledores army, hence why Delores Umbridge wanted him to be a spy but he’d never give that wrench any information, even if he hated Harry and his friends. Umbridge was just a utter nightmare not even draco wanted to deal with.  
“I just do, alright, I read about it a while ago and the just tried” Blair panics, quickly sipping her tea, she was getting flustered and he was finding it very amusing.  
“No offence Blair, you aren’t the most capable-“   
“If you’re about to insult my intelligence just stop, I don’t know how I can do it, I just can, maybe I’ve just found my niche”   
There’s was a knock at the door and McGonagall just sighs, “you two best be off to breakfast, especially you Blair”   
“You’ll keep us in the loop right? If any information comes to light?” Blair sweetly smiles At McGonagall as they get up to leave.  
“I’ll see what I can do” 

They both walk to the great hall together in silence, Draco parting ways with her to go see Pansy before they even reached the doors.   
“Blair oh my god” Blaise exclaims far too loudly for 9am on a Sunday.  
“Stop making a scene” she hisses sitting down next to him.  
“I’ll stop making a scene when you stop nearly getting yourself killed”   
“We saw what happened by the lake, it was well mad” minty gushes stirring her coffee that had so much sugar in it, it was giving Blair cavities just smelling it.  
“You saw it?” Blair mutters helping herself to some toast.  
“Yeah we were coming here and we saw it out a window it looked- you’ve got to teach me that spell” minty rushes, she must be on her third coffee at least, it’s surprising she’s awake right now and not throwing up in the lavatories. She was so drunk last night she looked like stumbling baby deer. 

And that’s when she got an idea. She quickly scoffs down 2 pieces of toast and jam and then gets up to her feet, still chewing her food.  
“Blair can you not sit still for 10 minutes” Blaise complains as she knocks his arm.  
“Sorry I’ve got to go” she mutters, rushing off to the library.

She hadn’t seen Harry yet or any of his friends, she thought she got away with avoiding them but that hope was ripped out from beneath her when a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders, scaring the life out of her.  
“Jesus Christ” she hisses looking to her right and seeing Fred and then looking left to see George, she had to remind herself that they are twins and she’s wasn’t seeing double.  
“Hello Blair” they say at the same time, she will never get used to them being so in sync, it was unnerving at times.   
“What are you two? the twins from the shining?” she hisses as they walk through the library.  
“I have no idea what even means” Fred, or was it George, mutters.  
“We heard about what happened this morning” George begins.  
when will people stop bringing this stuff back up she was getting tired of repeating herself.   
“And we also heard about what happened last night” Fred continues, why do they always talk in turns.  
“Harrys been moping about the common room morning”  
“You should probably talk to him”   
She shrugs off their hands and steps forward. She turns to face them, “if Harry is so beaten up over accusing me of being a-“ she pauses and looks around the room before lowering her tone, “a death eater, then he should come talk to me himself”   
“Well you aren’t exactly easy to get a hold of Irvin, you teleport around this castle” George grins at her.  
“If Harry wants to talk to me, he can come find me” 

She spends the next few hours in the library, undisturbed, rifling through every single book she could find that even mentioned a dementor or a patronus charm. If the school wasn’t going to help figure out what was happening she will get to the bottom of it. This week had been a whirlwind, nothing extraordinary ever happened to her and within a week she’d been attack twice by dementors, learned the patronus charm and began tolerating Draco Malfoy of all people. It was exhausting.   
She couldn’t quite wrap her around Draco’s sudden niceness towards her, she’s spent the past five years avoiding him in the corridors and bumping heads with him. Now he is the reason she can do this stupid spell, now she’s holding hands with Him while hiding from a party, now he’s confiding in her and keeping the insults to a minimum. She hoped she’d eventually be enlightened by draco as to what caused this sudden change of heart but she knew not to ask questions about them sort of things, he didn’t like talking about his family (unless it was bragging) or the dark things that run through his mind. She was just happy he was showing an interest in her and she didn’t want to scare him off.   
The books in the library held very little information on both patronus charms and dementors, just brief mentions and basic information she already knew, so she was at another dead end. It was nearing lunch time and the day was finally catching up to her she wondered if anyone would judge her if she decided to take a nap under the library table. Probably not, they’ve probably seen much weirder things in here. She decided to ‘rest her eyes’ by placing her head down on the table, the smell of old books filling her senses as her face brushed the crinkled parchment paper.  
She must’ve drifted off because a few minutes later she was jolted awake by a quiet voice and a hand gently touching her back.  
“It’s just me”   
It’s just Harry Potter.  
“Can I- sit here” his voice cracks as he untucks the chair next to her.  
She sleepily nods her head and quietly watches as he sits next to her, his eyes reading the titles of the books she’d hoarded from the library shelves. He looked as tired as she did, but he looked kind of cute, wearing a jumper much too large for him.   
“Listen Blair, I want to apologise-“   
“Harry you don’t have to apologise I think I overreacted. I mean you do need to keep your wits about you especially with all that been going on- I also think my tattoo choice and placement should’ve been thought through a bit more” she chuckles her eyes instinctively looking at her sleeve where her tattoo is hiding.  
“I still shouldn’t have accused you of that I trust you, I really do, I didn’t want to upset you”   
She shrugs, “nah I’ve been called worst things...I just think you were kind of stupid to accuse me of being a death eater”   
Harry raises his eyebrows at Blair watching as she leans towards him, “use your common sense potter why on earth would the dark lord want my dumb ass to be on his side, it would be self sabotage”  
“I wouldn’t know, At the rate you’re going you’ll be better than seamus in no time”   
“I mean I’d argue I’m already better than him, I haven’t set anything on fire this week”  
“Well there is still the rest of today to go”   
“You’re right, my luck has been suspicious lately, I’d take a few steps back incase I spontaneously combust” she jokes leaning away from Harry.   
They talked for a while longer, mainly about quidditch since Harry had a match later against slytherin which lead Blair to debating where her Loyalty lies when it comes to supporting her quidditch team but then she just concluded that she doesn’t actually care all that much about the sport and just liked going for the fun of it all (as fun as it can be watching your classmates nearly get bludgeoned to death by a flying ball in the freezing cold).  
“What have you been doing today- besides from fighting off dementors”  
“Well- researching dementors-“ she laughs picking up one of the library books that had a moving picture of dementor hiding in the clouds, “I’ve been meaning to ask you actually, you’ve dealt with them in the past-“   
“What an understatement”   
“Well I didn’t really know you then so what the fuck was going on” Blair asks, sitting sideways on her chair and resting he chin her hand, waiting for Harry to explain.  
“Well in third year when Sirius escaped Azkaban-“   
“Wait wait wait- how did I not know Sirius black was you’re god father? Was I just supposed to find that out myself through Malfoy of all people?” She interrupts, remembering back to when draco mentioned it in the astronomy tower.   
“Don’t you read the news papers?”  
“Only the muggle ones, I once brought a daily prophet home and my mother thought she was having a schizophrenic break down when she saw Lockheart moving on the front cover so I stick to muggle papers- also I can’t read- continue” Blair urges gesturing with her hand.  
“The ministry of magic sent out dementors to find him”  
“So dementors are from the ministry”  
“Well yeah I believe so”   
“So then what the fuck are they doing here right now? Why are they attacking just me and draco? You don’t think the ministry are sending them after us?” Blair leans closer and whispers, to avoid any prying eyes from hearing their conversation.  
“Maybe they’re not after you, I mean- we know who dracos dad is- is it too hard to believe that possibly the ministry is trying to get the Malfoys out of the picture”  
“Yeah but why send them after draco? Send them after Lucius, the actual death eater”  
“Draco could be a death eater” that made Blair laugh.  
“Trust me draco is not a death eater”  
“And you know this how?”  
“I just do- trust me Harry it’s been a weird week- this is the most I’ve spoken to you and Malfoy in the five years I’ve known of your existences, I’ve learned a lot”  
“Two ends of the scale”  
Blair laughs “it’s been a very bipolar week”   
“Look if you need help getting to the bottom of this I can help you”  
“That would be nice- but you already have a lot on your plate, chosen one, don’t stress yourself out”  
“Don’t call me that- and no I want to help you”  
“Okay thank you- McGonagall mentioned that umbridge has an enquiry with with defence department but doubt she’ll do much about it”   
“I can maybe talk to Sirius see if he knows anything”   
“Okay- we should probably go get lunch- especially you, I don’t think you want to get your ass handed to you by slytherin on an empty stomach.   
“So much for team Gryffindor” Harry frowns, helping her pick up all her books.

She ate some more food at the great hall then got changed into warmer clothes, deciding to put on her big puffy jacket with her house scarf and a woolly beanie hat then head out to the quidditch pitch with Minty. On their way there Blair caught a glimpse of the slytherin team all uniformed up with their broom sticks, heading to the pitch.  
“Hey you run ahead and save me a seat I think I left my wand in our room”   
Minty goes ahead to the stands while Blair runs back down the corridor towards the slytherin team.  
“Draco!” She calls out and the whole team seemed to turn around and stare at her, making her immediately regret yelling for him.   
“What is it Irvin?” Draco walks towards her, his voice sounding harsh and mean, like he was annoyed by her presence but his face looked worried and concerned, he probably thought Blair would never do this unless it was urgent.   
“Oh uhm” she hesitates not wanting to say what she had planned in front of the entire quidditch team.  
“You go ahead I’ll catch up in a minute” Draco says to the team captain, Marcus Flint.   
“Don’t be late Malfoy” he says but glaring at Blair who just glared back at him.  
“What- what is it?” Draco whispers once the team was out of war shot.  
“Meet me in the forbidden forest after the game”   
“What why?” Draco scrunches his face at the bizzare request.  
“I’m going to teach you how to do the patronus charm”   
Draco just laughed “good luck with that one”   
“I’m being serious” she hisses folding her arms over her chest.  
“Alright fine I will, but if we get murdered by the centaurs it’s on you”   
“Good luck out there- don’t hurt Potter too bad will ya?”   
“I’m not promising anything” draco reaches out and tugs the end of her scarf, “nice scarf”   
Draco was actually surprised to see her wearing her house colours, she never did that before. Blair wasn’t exactly keen to express who her house was let alone show pride for slytherin so it was an interesting change.  
And with that they parted ways, Blair running up the slytherin stands, minty managed to her a seat with Blaise and Pansy near the front. It wasn’t long until the gryffindors started chanting and making a ridiculous amount of noise which just created such an electric atmosphere, especially when the slytherins start chanting back. She may be biased but Blair always thought the Gryffindor vs Slytherin quidditch matches were always the best to attend, it was always so tense, the feeling in your chest when the team is at a draw and then they score, and nothing compares to when the slytherins win, she can already see the common room getting trashed again during the celebrations after the game. The games also became a lot more tense ever since Harry and Draco became their house seekers. The houses were already big rivals as it is, but you throw Harry and Draco into the mix you’re just asking for a fight.   
Eventually one by one the Gryffindor team comes flying out onto the pitch and the noise was deafening, and then it got even louder when the slytherin team came out, Blair would be lucky if she still had her hearing after the match.   
Once the two teams were out on the pitch, enjoying the hype they were getting from the stands, Blair realised this match would be a very interesting one in deed because she couldn’t stop staring at Draco and Harry. But the issues wasn’t choosing which team to support, it was the issue of realising she maybe, just maybe, had caught feelings for a pair of arch nemesis’.


	5. Chapter 5

"Draco Malfoy looking as handsome as ever" Blair teases as the blonde boy came into view, still wearing his quidditch uniform and stumbling over the twisting tree roots.   
"Haha how are you so funny" draco mocks, his hand going to touch his very crooked looking nose.   
Blair gets up from her spot below the large oak tree, dropping her book next to her lantern. 

She'd been waiting in the forbidden forest for about half an hour now, she knew draco would take a while after that match to meet her but it didn't bother her. She loved the forbidden forest and being amongst the trees, not to mention the creatures that live in here. It's the place where she saw her first unicorn, if 6 year old Blair could've seen it she would've wet her pants. She also didn't want to rush him he probably had to go to the medical wing but knowing draco he probably didn't. Hewas probably too busy celebrating slytherins first quidditch Win of the season.  
"Let me see" she stops in front of Malfoy and scans his face. It was a complete mess.   
For starters his nose was completely broke, his cheek was bruised and it looked like his lip had been bleeding.   
"Looks like Potter landed some good punches" she grins, her fingers grazing his chin to angle his face. The sun hung low in the sky, a gentle orange glow seeped it’s way through the gaps in the trees, the lighting was barely enough to see his face clearly but she could see he was badly injured. She wouldn’t say it but she was rather impressed Harry could do such damage. Whatever caused the spat must’ve really fired Harry up. The fool was always easy to wind up and draco could always find a way under Harry’s skin but Harry didn’t help himself because he always took dracos bait.  
"Yeah you should've seen him"  
"Stop trying for act hard" she rolls her eyes shoving his shoulder. She noticed the slight grimace on his face and she immediately regret her choice.  
"Right should've known you wouldn't be too pleased about your boyfriend losing a fight to me"   
"He's not my boyfriend- and Harry definitely won the fight" she touches his nose and he flinches away. 

No one was entirely sure how this situation ended up happening. It was just a normal match, Harry seemed to be more on his a-game this time around, basically having the snitch in his grasps for the best part of the game. Some exchange must've went on without the crowds awareness and then,Draco and Harry were rolling around on the floor of the quidditch pitch, throwing punches at each other. It looked like Harry was getting the most hits in but it was really hard to tell from so far up.  
"Well this is just brilliant" Blaise claps in amusement, shouting words of encouragement to draco.  
"Stop it" Blair hisses slapping Blaises shoulder.  
"Oh right yeah I forgot Potter was your lover"   
"Lover? What are you a 90 year old grandmother?"  
"You're not denying it"   
Blaise had a point, Blair had no idea what to think of Harry. She probably wouldn't turn him down if he asked her out but she wasn't sure her heart was entirely in the right place, but maybe in time, she could see her falling for Harry. I mean he's the sweetest person she's ever met and not to mention, so idiotic it makes him brave. She could see herself happily falling for Harry Potter.  
"Why do they always have to spoil the fun" Blaise groans as some of the staff break up Harry and Dracos little fight.  
"Because if they didn't they'd probably kill each other"  
"Nah Harry doesn't have it in him" 

It looked like the pair had a good bollocking from the teachers and probably some threat that the game would be cancelled if the pair couldn't behave. There will definitely be some points deducted from both house for this stunt they pulled but finally the game was up and running again. But it didn't last for much longer anway because for the first time ever, Draco actually caught the snitch. Which is a bigger deal than if seems, it's the first time that someone else caught the snitch in a game against the Harry. The second Lee Jordan announced to the crowds that Draco Malfoy had caught the Golden snitch, everyone in the Slytherin stand erupted into roars of cheers and chants. Blaises idea of celebrating is holding Blair in a headlock and screaming bloody murder.  
"I will smother you in your sleep" she choked out, prying his arms from around her neck.

"Let me fix your face" she points her wand towards dracos face who responds by dramatically diving away from her like she’d pointed a loaded weapon at him, which she kind of did.  
"Do not point that thing at me"   
"I'm not going to blow you up, come on Luna has been teaching me a spell, let me try fix your nose"   
He hesitantly looks at her, his eyes focussed on her wand. Anyone in their right mind would turn around and run the second Blair Irvin even offers to use a spell on them. It's a one way ticket to being seriously injured or even killed. But draco might just be out of his mind because he lets her.  
“Someone has a death wish” she mutters not even feeling confident she wouldn’t harm Draco more.  
"If this goes wrong I'm haunting you"   
Before draco could have time to wuss out, Blair was already flicking her wand and dracos nose, "Episkey"   
There was cracking noise, dracos hand cupped his face as he groans in pain. He felt a cooling sensation that quickly fizzled into a hot tingling sensation that travelled from the bridge of his nose to his cheeks the fading away once it reached his ears.  
"Let me see, Did it work?"   
Blair was on a roll this week because sure enough Dracos nose looked like nothing had ever happened. She had to refrain from verbally congratulating herself in front of draco, she couldn’t wait to tell Luna that she succeeded. She didn’t tell draco this but that’s the first time she’d done the spell correctly. In the past she turned bones into jelly.  
"You're just full of surprises aren't you?" His fingers pushing on the bridge of his nose, he looked rather impressed with her skill. 

"Right let's get to it"  
"I can't do a patronus charm" draco mutters following her over to the tree she was previously sat under, the sound of dry leaves and mulch crunches under their feet.  
"Have you even tried?" She asks picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder.  
"I have actually"  
He was telling the truth, after the first dementor attack, Draco actually gave the spell a few tries. He remembers hearing Professor Lupin talking about patronus charms and he knew the basis of it all, he knew the incantation and the wand movement and that you had to think of your happiest memory but that was where draco seemed to hit a wall. He couldn't quite conjure up any happy memories, well, none strong enough to make the spell work. He's sure he probably had a lot of happy moments when he was a child but he can't remember that far back and in recent years it's all been doom and gloom.  
"Do you know why it didn't work" she asks holding the lantern up by her face, the flame flickers, casting dancing shadows across the side of her face.   
Blair notices the hesitation in his face, his eyes looking anywhere but Blair, "dont know"  
"Stop lying"   
"It sounds stupid"   
"Just tell me"   
They begin walking deeper in the woods together, their path illuminated by the lantern. It was risky being out in the forbidden forest, there's a reason it's named the way it is. Who even knows what's hiding in the darkness, Blair was extremely hesitant to come here after Harry told her about Aragog, She wasn't scared of spiders but the idea of coming face to face with a spider that has a leg span 15 fucking feet physically repulsed her.   
But it was unlikely that anything would happen (besides from another dementor attack) that would put them in harms way. It was the best place for them to do this since they could get caught in the castle and Blair wasn't about to just take draco into the room of requirement.  
"It's just- I don't think I have any memory happy enough for the spell to work"  
"Wow that's...depressing" she stops as they get to a clearing. It was a new moon and the sun had basically set so they had to rely heavily on their own lighting.  
"Surely that's not true, everyone has happy memories" she places the lantern down in the middle of the clearing and quickly scans the area around them making sure there wasn't a werewolf lurking in the bushes. It’s at this point she’d maybe cast some protection wards but do I even have to explain why she didn’t.  
"I mean maybe I do I just can't remember any of them"   
"Well if you try now it might work I mean you did just get your house a win in quidditch"  
Blair stepped away from him and sat down on the forest floor, she takes her wand out and casts 'lumos' to give the pair better visibility, no giant spider is sneaking up on her.  
"just don't try your hard, don't force the memory just let it come to you" she advises, remembering what Harry had taught her.  
He withdraws his wand holds it out, ready to cast the spell but he looked nervous, even in the dim lighting Blair could tell, his hands seemed to tremble. He looked very similar to the night in the astronomy tower, Blair couldn’t quite pin point the emotion of seemed like nerves mixed with sadness and anger.  
“We don’t have all day Malfoy we have dinner in a hour” blair falls back, propping herself up on her elbows with her legs sprawled out, her feet swaying from side to side as she grew impatient. It’s times like this she wishes her parents had her tested for ADHD because she could never sit still or concentrate for the life of her.  
“I’m nervous alright” he hisses.  
“Having performance issues?”   
He lowers his wand and raises his brows at her causing her to groan, “just go already”   
“Expecto patronum”  
Nothing.   
“Just breath, think of how you felt when you caught the snitch, and then visualise yourself pushing energy and Magic to your fingers, it’s what I did”   
He tried again. nothing. 

This went on for a while and draco appeared to have anger issues nearly as bad as Blair’s. Speaking of Blair, she had climbed every climbable tree in her vicinity and then got bored and tired. She was just laying in the forest floor listening to draco try over and over again. She tried her best to give as much advice as possible but what works for someone might not work for someone else. The sun had now completely set and the once dark blue sky was now pitch black, there must’ve been a meteor shower happening because Blair managed to catch a few streaks of light through the tree branches. Despite the cold and the creepy forest they were in, it was quite a pretty night.

“Is this now you always feel?” Draco huffs, collapsing on the floor next to Blair, his eyes closing as he fought of fatigue, he had been extremely busy all day and it was finally hitting him. He could just nap right there on the forest floor but he’d probably wake up several miles away in a trolls den. He just wanted to go straight to bed but he couldn’t miss dinner.   
“Kind of, but I think I cry more” she chuckles turning to face draco.  
Draco was about to respond with ‘I wouldn’t know’ but decided it against it, it would probably raise some questions, so he just turned and smiled at her.   
This was a reoccurring thought draco was having lately that he never realised before. Blair was very pretty. But she wasn’t ‘traditionally’ pretty, she looked similar to Pansy but Blair just seemed softer. She had harsh facial features, a bump on her nose and high cheek bones but she had these soft rosy cheeks and spattering of freckles over her nose with these big hazel eyes that seemed to pierce anyone’s soul. Her hair was constantly changing but she always seemed to revert back to short brown hair. She always had a tan in September and October but by the time it was March all colour seemed to disappear from skin. He never found her attractive before, then he saw her in that green dress and it just dawned on him. Despite her being physically attractive her personality was like gold to draco. She was everything he wasn’t which was why he didn’t like her in the beginning. Now, he admired her so much for it, he adored who she was as a person. She was overly sensitive but Loud and giggly, she could be a sarcastic prick at times but she’d never be be mean to anyone, well not intentionally anyway. Even with her struggles at school and nearly always being bottom of the class and needing personal tutoring with snape to catch her up, She never felt stupid or less than any other student just because she struggled. Draco couldn’t work out how she did it, he would’ve dropped out of school by now if he were in her shoes but his dad would probably pull him out before it got to that point to avoid ‘ruining the family name’.  
“What are you staring at, is there a spider in my face?” Her hands immediately start rubbing her face in a desperate attempt to get rid of the invisible spiders crawling over her face.  
“Just thinking”  
“About...”  
“You’re being nosy”   
“I still don’t know who you are, you never talk about yourself”   
“There’s not much to say.”  
Blair couldn’t disagree more. Even if he kept to himself and avoided talking about personal topics, Blair could read him well. Draco carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, because he won’t let anyone share the pressure. In the moments like these when it’s just Blair and Draco, all she sees is a scared boy being crushed by his fathers pressure. But when he wasn’t being a sad bitch, she could see the hidden parts of his personality shining through his rough demeanour. He was a child at heart and very playful, he’d definitely let a peacock loose in Blair’s room just for shits and giggles. She really loved this side of draco it’s probably the only part she could tolerate.  
It immediately caught draco off guard when he suddenly felt Blair’s cold finger tips brush his hand.  
“So what’s the story behind the ring?” Her hand gently wraps around his wrist, they weren’t even big enough to wrap all the around it. She pulls his hand towards him and admires the clunky silver glinting in the candle light.  
“Oh that- my father gave me it as a birthday present in first year, it’s just a symbol of slytherin, a few of us have it”   
The ring had a snake coiling around itself, twisting into a a vague ‘S’ shape, similar to the badge on the slytherin robes. Blair recoils seeing Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle all wearing the same ring, she wasn’t even aware there was such thing.  
“You barely wear the slytherin uniform never mind want the ring” draco slips his hand from a her grasp.  
“Actually- do you want to see my tattoo?” She suddenly sits up right, already shrugging off her coat before he could respond, she’d still show him even if he said no.   
“Only if it’s in a secret place” she didn’t even need to look at him to see that shit eating grin on his face.  
“Don’t be a pig” she hisses slapping him with her jacket sleeve.   
“Me and some friends all got tattoos over the summer and I decided to get something to commemorate my time at hogwarts” she rolled up the sleeve of her jumper to reveal the snake on her arm. Her friends were confused by her choice since she never was fond of snakes but Blair couldn’t really tell them that it was her magical schools house symbol so she just said it was a personal meaning. Even though she loved going to hogwarts and behind able to use (limited) magic, she hated not being able to tell her friends and lying to them constantly.   
If her friends knew the kind of shit and antics she got up to at her wizard school, especially now she hangs around with potter who just attracts danger, she thinks their muggle brains would implode. They’d be locked up in the nearest psych ward in no time.  
“Aren’t you a bit young to have a tattoo?” He smirks as he sits up, gently pulling her arm closer to the lantern to see it clearer.  
She shrugs and smiles, “my friends brother is a tattoo artist but shush”   
“That’s a surprising choice of tattoo from you Irvin, I’m rather shocked it isn’t the Gryffindor crest” he gently traces his finger along the thin winding snake. His touch made Blair squirm causing her to pull her arm away. She at first thought it was just because shes ticklish but when she looks back on this night she realises it was the beginning.  
“Well that will be next tattoo obviously” she jokes, slipping her jacket back on, the late November air already nipping at her skin, her arm hair standing up on its ends.  
“I didn’t take you to be a tattoo person-“ dracos words were cut short by a piercing howl cutting through the evening air. The sound chilled draco to the bone.  
“Let’s head back for dinner” Blair snaps her head toward Draco who adorned the same wide eyed fear on his face as Blair.  
“Uhm yeah let’s” they scramble to their feet, the rustling of leaves seemed deafening, like it would give them away to the hidden secrets of the forest.  
“It’s not even full moon”Blair mutters basically having to run to keep up with Dracos speed walk pace.  
“Doesn’t have to me, Animagus’ exist”   
They basically ran back out the forest, their own minds freaking them out convincing themselves the centaurs were following them. 

The second they got back onto the school grounds draco suddenly left her without another word, Blair didn’t even question it but then he saw Pansy round the corner, greeting Draco with scowl. She walked a few feet behind them towards the great hall feeling slightly uncomfortable watching draco interact with Pansy.   
“Blair! Blair, hey wait” she turned her head to look back and was immediately greeted by Harry’s adorable grinning face.  
“Hey Harold” she smiles, examining the bruise under his left eye.   
“Loved today’s match, especially the impromptu wrestling match towards the end there” Harry’s eyes naturally drift to the blonde boy in front of them.  
“Just have to change things up sometimes”   
“Well by the looks of things, you definitely beat draco- literally” she giggles quietly.  
“I wouldn’t know, my face hurts” he smiles awkwardly at Blair, “oh you have a leaf in your hair” Harry reaches up and untangles the orange leaf from her wind swept hair.  
“Oh thanks” she smiles shyly at him.  
Harry glances around the slightly crowded corridor before leaning towards her, whispering in ear, “dumbledores army meeting right after dinner, you’re coming right”   
Blair couldn’t help but notice draco looking back at them with an alien look on his face she couldn’t quite pin point it.  
“Always”


	6. Chapter 6

The next five days were rather uneventful for Blair. It was officially the first full week of December and Christmas break was fast approaching so all the teachers were offloading a lot of work in order to get all the work done in time for the holidays. She had been spending a lot of time in the library, writing notes and papers until her hands cramped up and the ink basically stained her hands permanently. But she wasn’t alone in the library, Her and Harry had gotten into the rhythm of meeting up to work together during free lessons and after school hours. Sometimes Ron and Hermione joined them but Blair preferred it when it was just Harry. They always ended up bickering over the work or completely goofing off and ignoring the task at hand but they always came out of the library with their work done.   
As a result of this she hardly saw draco, only in passing or in lessons but they never really spoke. Blair can easily recall the only conversation they had this week and it was on Wednesday. Because it snowed on Wednesday. 

“It’s snowing!” Blair exclaims running into the slytherin common room still dressed in her blue plaid pyjamas. She initially went to see Blaise but the second she staggered down the steps into the common room she slammed right into draco Malfoy.  
“It snows every year Irvin” he beams at her, his hands on either side of her arms to stable her as she nearly clattered to the floor after knocking into Draco.  
He was already fully dressed in his shirt and tie but his jumper was missing, he looked like he’d been awake for a while but his eyes still looked tired. Despite this he had a huge toothy grin on his face.  
“Doesn’t matter it’s still exciting” she grabs his hand and Pulls him up the stairs into the girl dormitory which probably looked odd from an outsiders perspective but the windows in the sleeping quarters were at ground level so it was the only way to see outside.  
“Look at it!” She beams practically dragging him over to the large arched windows that looked over the surface of the lake. The snow fall was violent so it was almost impossible to see a meter on front of them, it was a full on blizzard outside and all draco could think about was how cold snapes classroom was going to be.   
Draco stared out the window, his eyes barely picking up on the outline of the mountains by the lake. He could practically feel the cold leaking through the glass.  
And then Blair did something draco would never expect her to do in a million years, she looped her through his and then carefully rest her cheek on his shoulder, “it’s the first snow of winter, I wish my parents could see this we never get snow up north, just endless floods”  
“You really aren’t selling your home town” draco looks down at her and feels his heart flutter in his chest as he sees the pure joy in her face as she watched the snow flurry rage on. Suddenly draco didn’t feel the cold.   
He adored the way Blair got excited over the stars or the weather or carving pumpkins or seeing squirrels. She really does appreciate the little things in life and now draco can’t look at any of it the same.   
He suddenly has an affinity for a summer downpour and he can’t help but look up at the night sky when he can’t sleep, his eyes searching the abyss for the planets and the dragon constellation. Be can’t even look at the stupid peacocks the same way. Now he can add snow to the list.  
“You better get ready for class I can’t imagine missing a lesson will do much for your intelligence” and with that comment she was kicking him out of the her room.

In the corner of the leaky caldron sat blair and Harry. Harry was sipping at a Butterbeer while Blair nursed a rather impressive mug of peppermint hot chocolate with a mountain of whipped cream, topped with sugary Marshmallows. The pair, along with Ron and Hermione, had been trekking around hogsmede through all the snow, on the hunt for Christmas presents. Blair only got some sweets from Fred and George’s shop for her younger brother and she was already done. So while Ron and Hermione went to one last shop , Harry and Blair decided to wait in the leaky caldron from them. Blair felt exhausting from shopping all day and Harry just wanted to sit down and hide from the snow, so they opted to sit in the corner next to the fire place.   
“I still can’t feel my fingers” Harry mutters clenching his hands in a tight fist and relaxing them.   
“See, this is why you get a hot drink to warm your hands on” Blair grabs Harry’s icy hands and holds them in her own in an attempt to use her body heat to warm him.   
“You can’t come here and not get a Butterbeer”   
“ I mean I just did so” she intertwines their fingers and then sips her hot chocolate.  
“You don’t count you don’t even like Butterbeer”   
“I don’t know how anyone does it tastes diabolical”   
Blair then yawns and leans her head in Harry’s shoulder, her eyes staring up at the window at the Christmas decorations on the window ledge. A pretty garland dusted in Fake snow and sparkling decorations draped over the window ledge, smelling of fresh pine and musk.  
“They shouldn’t be too long” Blair closed her eyes and nodded her head.   
She must’ve been drifting off to sleep because suddenly Harry squeezes her hand and she shudders awake, “oh here comes Malfoy”   
Her tired eyes land on the blonde boy entering the leaky caldron with his two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle. All three of them were wrapped up in expensive looking jackets, probably the finest daddy’s money could buy. They looked engrossed in a conversation that was centred around roasting Crabbe since he had a red face while Goyle and Draco were laughing and looking smug as hell.   
“Have you two talked since that thrilling fight last week?” Blair’s voice cracks as she speaks, just wishing to be asleep.   
“Why would I actively speak to Malfoy?”  
“I don’t know, always thought you two were like secret lovers or something” Blair fought back the smile but couldn’t help let her lips twitch up.   
Harry couldn’t even respond, he stammered and stumbled over his next Sentence.  
“I’m joking Potter” she laughs and then her eyes are drawn back to Malfoy as he and cronies abruptly leave the leaky caldron without even sitting down, it wasn’t exactly busy in there but by the way Crabbe and Goyle were complaining it must’ve been Dracos idea to leave.   
The second the wooden door swung closed it was immediately opening again revealing the familiar red head and curly haired girl. They both carried some bags that Blair couldn’t quite work out where they were from but it seemed like a successful shopping trip at least.   
“You two took your time” Harry chimes as the settle down in the chairs across from them, stripping off their hats and scarfs.   
“Hermione is bloody endless” Ron huffs shrugging off his jacket.   
“I am not, it’s not my fault that Lavender brown stalked us around Gladrags then decided to talk your ear off for half an hour”   
Blair found herself laughing to herself when lavender brown was mentioned. She was a sweet girl really but she always us went about it in a odd fashion and for some reason she had taken a likening to Ron.  
“I’ll go get drinks, Butterbeer?” Hermione asks Ron who nods before asking Harry and Blair if they wanted anything more, both declined.   
“Oh Blair by the way, my mum was wondering if you wanted to stay with us this Christmas?” Ron Asks, his eyes bouncing between Harry and Blair.   
“Oh really that’s so nice” she sits up and shakes off Harry’s hand to grab her mug, “I’ll have to ask my parents but I’m down to join”   
Blair felt heat rise to her cheeks, she’d never had friends like this before and now Ron was inviting her to spend Christmas with the Weasleys, the offer alone warmed her heart.   
“You don’t want to miss, mrs Weasleys Christmas dinner she makes the best roast  
Potatoes” Harry gushes.

They spend an hour or so talking and sipping bottom less Butterbeers before heading back to the school. The journey on the way back consisted of Blair complaining she was tired of walking and then Ron carrying her on his back for about 10 yards before giving up.   
Well don’t you look happy” minty chirps staring at Blair, like there wasn’t anything wrong with her appearance.   
“My god, your hair!” Blair practically chokes on air as she stares in wide eyes bewilderment at her room mate.  
“Oh do you like it?” She flicks her freshly dyed over her shoulder.   
“Surprisingly yeah but I doubt umbridge is going to let you keep it.” Blair mutters as she meticulously ties her tie and tucks her shirt into her skirt.   
“Maybe she’ll appreciate it since she loves pink” the pair were getting ready for dinner, Blair assumed Minty would already have been dressed and ready to go since she’d spent the whole day in the school but then Minty informed her she’d spent the day with blaise. The way she said it didn’t make Blair eager to touch any furniture in the common room.  
“So are you too like official or what?” Blair ponders as they scurry down the steps to the common room.  
Minty just shrugs, her long pink hair falling over her shoulder, “he hasn’t asked me to be his girlfriend”   
“Why don’t you ask him out?”   
“No that’s weird-“ she pauses her eyes glistening in amusement as she locks eyes with someone in the common room.  
“Alright Malfoy, why have you got a face like a slapped ass?”   
Minty was right, Blair took one look at the boy sat at the desk by the towering book case and he had his face twisted in a frown.  
“It’s none of your business Minty- christ you look like a state” Malfoy throws Minty a dirty look as he examines her loud hair. The insult rolled off Minty who just rustled her locks.  
“So you like it? That’s so sweet” her words dripped with sarcasm.   
Blair made eye contact with Malfoy and the insidious look in his eyes made her shrink into herself, suddenly feeling small and shy. She felt like the first time she and Malfoy met.   
“Blair I’m surprised to see you here, would’ve thought you were in the Gryffindor dorm shagging Potter”   
Blair felt like she’d been slapped in the face. “You what?” She spat, feeling more shocked than anything as his words.   
“You were all over him in the leaky caldron, I mean I always thought you and blaise were a thing but I’m not surprised you’ve bagged someone else, probably had half of Gryffindor by now, Longbottom included” that’s when Crabbe and Goyle started laughing and Blair could feel steam coming from her ears.  
“What the fuck are you insinuating?” She couldn’t believe her ears, she couldn’t believe the accusations being thrown at her. She’d never kissed anyone let alone slept with them. Malfoy was one more insult away from getting another broken nose.   
“I’m saying you’re a whore, Irvin, I thought Potter would’ve had higher standards, sleeping with a filthy little mud blood”   
“Just shut up Malfoy” she yells storming towards him watching as he rises from his seat, Crabbe and Goyle standing not too far behind him.  
Blair wasn’t entirely sure what had provoked malfoy to attack her like this but she knew he was being so harsh to keep appearances up around his friends. Which just infuriated her more.   
“Or you’ll do what?” Draco smirked looking down at her, she just wanted to knock that smug look of his face.   
Suddenly her wand was drawn and pointing in Malfoys direction which caused Crabbe and Goyle to laugh even more.   
“Careful don’t hurt yourself” draco mocks looking rather amused by Blair’s threat.   
“I’ll never understand you Malfoy” she spits, deciding she wouldn’t hurt him since he did have a point it was more likely to backfire on her.  
“Well I don’t want you too” his jaw tenses as he talks through gritted teeth.  
“Blair- come on ignore the rat” Minty was slowly pulling her away from the situation.   
Blair let Minty guide her to the exit feeling tears welling up in her eyes.  
“I wouldn’t bother coming back you aren’t exactly wanted here” Malfoy calls out before she can leave and Minty felt Blair tense under her.   
“Don’t- Blair” Minty hisses but it’s was too late.   
Blair tugged herself free from her friends gasp and spun around on her heels and pointed her wand at Malfoy.   
“Stupefy” she yells, a jet of red light zips from her wand hitting Malfoy in the chest, knocking him back into Crabbe and Goyle. He had this dumb dazed look on his face, unable to comprehend what just happened and unable to move from the ground.   
“Oh my god Blair” Minty gasps in astonishment.  
Blair stares with her mouth slightly agape, unable to believe what she has just done. She felt tears threatening to spill so she sprints from the slytherin common room before they could see her breaking down into a fit of sobs. She immediately made her way to the girls lavatories, where moaning myrtle resided. 

She didn’t show up for dinner but Draco some how managed to hobble himself to the slytherin, probably so no one would wonder where he was and start asking questions. He’d never admit that Blair Irvin managed to hit him with a stunning charm.   
“Minty, Minty hey.” Harry called out jogging up to the pink haired girl before she could sit down.  
“Oh hey Potter” she smiles brightly at the golden boy who couldn’t help but stare at her hair.   
“Have you seem Blair?” He asks, his eyes on the empty seat next to Blaise.  
“Oh Harry...” her eyes wander over to the moody looking draco Malfoy who was staring at his empty dinner plate. He was probably still stunned, “it was awful, Malfoy was being a little bitch to her” Minty made sure to raise her voice so that Draco would hear.  
“He was saying these horrible things to her and then she attacked him” she now lowers her voice to a whisper to avoid Blair getting into trouble.  
“She attacked him?” Harry gasped in disbelief, that sounded so out of character for Blair.  
“Yeah and stunned him with a spell and then ran off”   
Harry found himself glaring at Malfoy over Minty’s shoulder, “you know where she would be?”   
“Girls lavatories, astronomy tower or the boat house but she won’t have gone far”   
Draco clocked onto potters harsh gaze, “didn’t mummy ever tell you it was rude to stare Potter”   
Harry was about to leap over the table and start another fight with the stuck up boy but Minty shoved Harry back.  
“Harry no go sit down, I’ll talk to Malfoy- and I’ll take blair some cake, just go sit down.”   
Harry wanted to ignore her orders but the deadly serious look her eyes told him to just do what she says, so he retreats back to the Gryffindor table.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW/ mention/ implied suicide

The only sounds that could be heard were the rattling sobs ricochetting off the bathroom walls and the rhythmic dripping of water from a broken tap. Blair was slumped on the Bathroom floor next to the sinks, her face wet with tears as her whole body shook. Myrtle sat next to her watching in pity, she wanted to comfort her mortal friend so badly but she couldn’t touch her.   
“I just don’t understand-“ she takes in a sharp shaky breath and wipes her face with the back of her jumper sleeves.   
“I thought we were friends why would he say such awful things.” She swallows and looks up at the ceiling, trying to gain some composure.   
“Blair?” Both myrtle and Blair jumped out their skins when a new voice joined the conversation.   
“Hermione- what are you- what are you doing here” Blair begins violently wiping her face as if it would hide the fact she’d been crying in here for an hour. Even without the tears her red eyes and swollen lips gave her pass time away.  
“I wanted to see if you were alright, Minty kind of told me and Harry what happened, they’re both looking for you at the astronomy tower and the boat house” Hermione looked awkward standing in the door way. It had dawned on her she’d never actually spoken to Blair on her own.   
“Oh I’m alright just talking to myrtle” Blair offers a watery smile and gestures to her ghostly friend.  
“Hermione Grainger, it’s been a while” myrtle floats up towards the other girl with a grin on her face.  
“Hi myrtle, can I talk to blair, alone?”   
Myrtle huffs and then disappears down the sink drain.  
“I brought you some cake, since you weren’t at dinner” Hermione slowly walks towards Blair, holding a slice of red velvet cake wrapped up neatly in a napkin.   
“Oh thanks, I’m not hungry” Blair lies, she was hungry but even the idea of food made her feel nauseous.  
“You’ll probably want food later just take it, I’m sure Minty will eat it if you don’t” Blair takes the cake and drops it carefully in her pocket.  
“Minty explained what happened with Draco- I wish I could’ve seen it”   
“I don’t know what possessed me to do it, there was 90% chance I’d hit myself by accident” Blair laughs lightly.  
“I just- don’t understand draco”   
“I don’t think there’s much to understand about him quit frankly he’s a bit of a twat”   
Blair was taken back by Hermiones language choice, “he isn’t- it’s just I-“ Blair lets out an irritated sigh.   
“I don’t know what he wants from me! One minute everything’s fine and dandy with him and the next he’s ripping my head off” she throws her hands down by her side.  
“I didn’t think you talked to Malfoy all that much”  
“Hermione you don’t know the half of it the boy has worked his way into my life some how. I mean I fully thought he was going to kiss me the other night when we were in the forbidden forest and don’t even get me started on that fucking party we had” Blair rants on, admitting far too much to Hermione, she’d never told anyone about her and dracos rendezvous.  
“Oh what- this whole time I thought you and Harry were going to be together”   
“I like Harry I really do- I didn’t even think I liked draco but maybe I do, hes the only reason I can produce a stupid patronus” Blair sniffles, remembering her dragon patronus. Even her patronus makes her think of draco, it is a dragon after all, in Latin it’s literally draco.   
“I can’t really speak for draco but I know Harry really likes you, he never shuts up about you” Hermione grins at Blair a slight blush colouring her cheeks.  
“Really?”   
“Oh my god yes, he’s so excited you’re coming to the burrow for Christmas” Hermione looks off, as if pondering her thoughts, “I think draco- maybe he’s jealous?”   
“Jealous? Jealous of what- oh” and just like that all the puzzle pieces clicked into place and and glaringly obvious revelation was made.   
“What?” Hermione chimes her eyes watching Blair, she could practically see the cogs turning behind Blair’s eyes.   
“He doesn’t like me does he?” Blair stares shyly at Hermione.  
“I mean he is doing that typical boy thing of I-like-you-so-I’m-going-to-torment-you”   
Blair laughs, “no that’s what Ron does to you- draco decides to pick me apart until I end up like this- I mean he really called me a- a whore”   
“He did! Why on earth would he say that”   
“I don’t know- he said he was surprised to see me- said he thought I would be, uh, sleeping with Potter because he saw us in the leaky caldron earlier” Blair’s Face turned a brighter red than the Gryffindor flag as she said those words. It sounded ridiculous even to her own ears.  
“I’d suggest talking to him, even if that goes against everything I would ever say. Everyone must avoid talking to draco Malfoy at all costs” Hermione chuckles lightly.  
“He’s always so nice when it’s the pair of us but he’s the foulest person to ever walk the planet once he’s In front of a crowd, like he’s embarrassed by me” Blair pauses and smiles to herself, “I mean of course he’s embarrassed by me I’m a filthy little mudblood” her words twisted in sarcasm as she laughs at herself.  
“Well it’s a good thing us Mudbloods stick together then” Hermione nudges her elbow with Blair’s who turns to smile at her, this time the light met her eyes and she looked happy.   
“I think I’ll eat that cake now”

Blair could’ve seen this coming without looking into a crystal ball or reading tea leaves. The second she crawled into her bed her brain would not stop replaying today’s events over an over again. She was so angry and upset and confused, all these emotions were tying in a knot in her chest. She decided to call it a night at 10 pm but it was now 2 am and she was staring at a wall, thinking about draco and everything he said. Even after treating her like dog shit, the prat still occupied her mind. She wasn’t unfamiliar to these restless nights, she had experienced these a hundred times before when her mental health went down the drain or when she was first coming to hogwarts, homesickness ate away at her night hours.   
With a loud sigh of defeat, Blair rolled out of bed. She put on a jumper, scarf and hat over her wooly Christmas pyjamas. She shoved her feet into her boots and threw on her thick winter jacket, briefly glaring enviously at Minty sleeping peacefully next to her.   
Then, like clock work, she snuck up to the astronomy tower. She hadn’t been up here since her first positive encounter with draco, which is probably why she ended up back there. She slowed her foot steps as she drew near the top of the stairs when she noticed a glowing blue light illuminating the giant solar structure. She recognised the light as the familiar glow of a patronus charm.  
It reassured her that someone she probably knew was up here since most students at hogwarts don’t know how to do the charm and the ones that do are probably in Dumbledore’s army. The patronus charm in question came into Blair’s vision, and Blair had to physically refrain from screaming at it.   
There standing in front of her at the top of the stairs was this dazzling white peacock, it’s feathers shimmering as though the sun were reflecting off of them. It looked truly beautiful and even if Blair knew it was just a charm, she was still shitting herself.   
Now, she was extremely hesitant to continue up the steps. The astronomy tower was the designated depression session area and if someone is up here at 2am they’re clearly not in a good headspace. She debated internally wether or not she should leave them be but then she became worried someone was up here because the astronomy towers was the highest point of the castle and well it would be the best place to be if you planned on ending it all. Blair wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she was up here right now and turned around only to find out in the morning that a student has thrown themselves from the tower.   
So, she slowly ventured up and the charm caster was revealed. Blair was having a strong sense of de ja vu as the cold hit her and she laid eyes on draco Malfoy. Of course.  
The universe was just pushing these two together, literally the last person Blair wanted to see. He was sat on the floor with his knee up to his chest, his wand in hand as he stared entrancingly at the strutting peacock. She couldn’t think of a word to say to him. She wanted to turn around and leave but maybe she could talk to him.  
“Your patronus is a fucking peacock?”   
Dracos eyes suddenly snap up and lock eyes on Blair, the glow of the patronus glimmering in his watery eyes, the tear tracks down his cheeks reflected as he moved his head.  
“Blair- what are you doing here” quickly, he fumbles with his jumpers sleeve to wipe his face from any traces of tears. He was out here again without any jacket or hat or gloves- it’s literally snowing, the boy has a death wish.  
“What are you doing here Draco” Blair spits, poison laced in her tongue.  
Suddenly the strutting peacock fizzles away ands draco drops his wand, the wood clattering echoed around the tower.   
“I can’t sleep okay?” He pauses and looks back out at the snow capped mountains, “Blair about earlier I-“   
“Don’t- please- you’re not right in the head you know that right?” Blair huffs, edging towards Draco. She noticed a charred piece of paper not too far from Draco, it looked like a neat hand written letter that was poorly burnt.  
“Yeah- I’m aware- well aware”   
“I mean I thought we were friends- who says that to a friend? You have no right to comment about my love life. Which quite frankly is as active as moany myrtles”  
Blair stood over Draco who was shivering in his thin jumper, “like seriously what on earth made you say them things, Crabbe and Goyle egged you on? You trying to save your reputation cause you’ve gone soft? What is it?” She tugs her scarf off and gently drapes it around Dracos shoulders, his body tensing at the touch of the fabric.  
“Because if I didn’t know better” she slumps down near him, making sure to keep her distance, “it looks like you’re jealous of Potter” she lets out a chuckle but in the corner of her eye she watched his whole demeanour shift like a spirit now inhabited his body. His whole body stiffened as he sits up straight like her words touched a nerve. Well they didn’t touch a nerve, they elbow slammed it.   
“Fuck, you’re jealous of potter” she gasps, stealing a glance at him.   
His face turned all flustered and cute as he stammered over his words, “I’m- no I’m not- I’m not jealous- why would I be jealous of potter”   
“Oh come one Malfoy you’ve always been jealous of our dear chosen one- he’s literally the chosen one”   
“Well it’s not like that” he huffs tucking his Knees up closer to his chest.   
“Then what is it like because you’re unsolvable you know that right?”  
“Perhaps I’m meant to stay that way”   
“Hmm, guess it’s a good thing I love solving a mystery then?”


End file.
